


Profile and Timeline of Aileen Westbrook, World Guardian

by Laetitia_Laetitii



Series: Aileen Westbrook [1]
Category: Runescape
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Meta, Timeline, character profile, lots and lots of characters, questfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-01 20:45:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12712641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laetitia_Laetitii/pseuds/Laetitia_Laetitii
Summary: A profile page and in-universe timeline for my Adventurer/World Guardian character, Aileen Westbrook.Starring quests and how they happened for her, canon and non-canon events, and lots and lots of headcanons and world building.Recommended companion reading to my Aileen stories.





	1. Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Table of contents and a note about the timelines.

       

* * *

 

          This is the profile for my Adventurer/World Guardian aka player character, Aileen Westbrook.

          The first chapter contains her profile, at the moment sadly with no illustrations.

          In the chapters following that you will find her timelines, which detail both canon and non-canon events in her life, their sequence, and how they played out.

          For easy reading, the timeline is divided into two chapters, Fifth and Sixth Age ones. For both, there are two versions: A complete and a simplified one. The simplified versions are bare-bone lists of quests, their duration, the choices made along the way, and any major non-canon events.

          The complete versions include more detailed descriptions of the events, the routes she traveled, and the people she met on the way. Additionally, they include short fic fragments illustrating various situations in her life and links to any fics as and where they happen.


	2. Aileen's Profile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exactly what it says on the tin.

 

**Basic Information**

 

  * Name: Aileen Westbrook
  * Fremennik name: Ailín Jónsdóttir
  * Known aliases: Ailin Vestbrok, Valentina Constantine



 

  * Date of Birth: 32nd of Rintra, year 136 of the 5th Age.
  * Place of Birth: Catherby, Kandarin.



 

  * Past Places of Residence: Catherby, Rellekka, Ardougne, Varrock, Morytania, Falador.
  * Current Place of Residence: Gulvas Mansion, Silvarea, Misthalin.



 

  * Occupations, Past and Present: Housewife, maid, rune-runner, archaeological assistant, mercenary, spy, diplomat, World Guardian. Currently lives off a monthly allowance paid by the Zarosian faction.



 

  *  Alliances, Ranks, and Titles: Initiated Fremennik, Lieutenant of the Myreque, honorary member of the Royal Archaeological Society of Varrock, Guardian of Guthix.



 

 

**Skills, Strengths, and Weaknesses**

–In in-game terms: Thieving, agility, magic, runecrafting, ranged, herblore. Also cooking, farming, and crafting.

– Relies on stealth, guile, and diplomacy over violence, though more out of self-preservation than ethical concerns.

– Being a peasant woman raised in a pre-industrial society, Aileen knows a fair bit about farming and animal husbandry, is an experienced cook, and she spins, weaves, knits, and sews effortlessly. She can do basic carpentry and knows the fundamentals of construction, but specialised work such as pottery, metalwork, tailoring dresses or suits, shoemaking, and leatherwork are beyond her.

– Due to being an entirely self-taught mage, her magical skills are very uneven. She’s much better at enchantments and missile spells than with teleportation or Lunar spells. In combat, she prefers the Ancient Magicks (now that she can finally afford the runes for it).

– For the same reason, her runecrafting skills are piecemeal. She has never studied runecrafting systematically, and practically all her experience comes from either Ourania (which works very differently from all other altars), and the Varrock area altars (air, earth, chaos, body). Consequently, she has quite a lot of trouble with the higher-level altars. (It is a headcanon of mine that all runecrafting altars behave differently, and in order to imbue runes properly, one has to learn to manage the power flow from each altar respectively.)

– Over years of travelling, living in unhealthy environments, and getting her ass kicked by all manners of foes, Aileen has developed an interest in herblore. Knowing how to make wound salves and pain-relieving potions has made her life a lot easier. She has studied herbs and potions under the tutelage of both Thaerisk Cemiphier (during her Falador years) and with Vígdis (an OC, Chieftain Brundt’s wife) in Rellekka.

**Combat**

– Aileen avoids direct physical confrontation at all costs. When violence is inevitable, she relies on magic or a long-range crossbow, as she prefers to take her enemies out from distance. Finding safe spots and using the terrain to her advantage are her strong points, (as is fleeing like mad while taking blind shots at pursuers).

– Weapons of Choice, Ranged: Any crossbow will do, but her favourite is the stake-throwing Screwte, designed by Flaygian Screwte and made to measure for her by Vertida Sefalitis. Much later, she had hers outfitted with a cocking winch in order to avoid all that blasted business with goat’s foot levers.

– Weapons of Choice, Mage: An Ancient Staff. Before she acquired it at the end of _The Temple at Senntisten_ , a dramenwood staff. She continues to carry one of the latter as a walking staff, and when hungry, will whittle off it little cinnamon-flavoured sticks to chew on.

– Weapons of Choice, Melee: Prefers not to melee. If she has to,  anything lightweight and easily concealable — such as a dagger or her old household knife — will do. Sickles are handy for vyres.

 

**Religion and God Alignment**

**–** Aileen was raised Saradominist, and while certain Saradominist sensibilities linger in her thinking, she’s a cultural Saradominist, not an practising or a devout one.

– When it comes to the return of the gods, she subscribes to Guthixian ideals, i.e. keeping the gods out of Gielinor, or barring that, reducing their influence over mortals to the barest minimum. Consequently, she sided with the Guthixians during both  _The World Wakes_ and  _Missing, Presumed Death._

– Since the events of _The Temple at Senntisten,_ she has been tied up with the Zarosian faction, as in addition to gifting her with the book on Ancient Magicks, an Ancient Staff, and a king’s ransom in rare runes (“for practice”), Azzanadra began to pay her a monthly allowance “for living expenses.” For Aileen, this meant an end to her life-long economic problems, but it also tied her to a faction she otherwise would have been reluctant to deal with.

– After _The Fate of the Gods_ and learning about the threat posed by the Elder Gods, she allied herself with the Zarosians more closely, as she saw Zaros as Gielinor’s best bet against The Great Revision. After _Sliske's_ _Endgame_ , however, she has come to distance herself from Zaros again.

**Hobbies and Interests**

– Despite her lack of formal education, Aileen has always had scholarly aspirations. She wanted to study magic under Cromperty, but having had her request rejected, became a rune-runner. Her next ambition was to be an archaeologist, but due to her lack of qualifications, she became an excavation assistant and an occasional tomb raider instead. Go figure how much evil Gielinor would have been spared had Aileen just had the chance to go to school.

– An avid reader. Her interests include history, archaeology, theory of magic and runecrafting, and religion. Has a penchant for old manuscripts and especially pre-Fourth Age literature. Will also pester her more long-lived friends for tales of other worlds and ages gone by.

– Hobby writer. Has kept a diary on and off since 157, writes plenty of letters, and since the beginning of the Sixth Age, has intermittently worked on a memoir. In addition, she’s the author of one published work, _A Survey of the Archaeological Remains of the Northern Kharidian Desert_ and the editor of another one, _Gulvas Mansion, or The Final Diaries of Ingram Golves_.

– Speaks several languages. Aileen speaks Kandarinian Common (with a heavy Catherby accent) as her mother tongue and is fluent in Fremennik (the Rellekka dialect), as well as the many Icyenic-Common-mixture dialects spoken in Morytania. In addition, she speaks and writes Infernal passably and knows a smattering of Kharidian and Menaphitic (the Nardah dialect).  

– Sews and mends most of her own clothes. Even now that she finally has the money to live, she regards buying clothes as uneconomical and extravagant.

 

**Personality**

Quiet, reticent, observant. Will rather listen than talk. Slow to trust people, has a habit of lying and keeping others at an arm’s length in order to conceal the less acceptable parts of her past.

            In terms of temperament Aileen has two gears, and alternates between what one could call stable and unstable phases. During her stable periods, she sets up a steady life somewhere, lives quietly and respectably, and avoids drawing attention to herself. Examples of these could be her childhood, her time in Rellekka, her year with Cromperty, and her first year in Varrock.

            Over time, however, a sense of discontent and restlessness will begin to build up inside her. She will usually ignore it until it is too late, refusing to face whatever problem is present head-on, until finally she ends up going overboard and destroying her carefully built life through some rash, careless decision. (Such as running off with Stígandr, quitting Cromperty’s service to become a “rogue” rune-runner, going to Morytania, or deciding to aid Eblis after her and Asgarnia’s Jaldraocht expedition went to hell.)

            Once the dice is cast, what follows is anything from months to years of freewheeling adventuring — travel, exploration, and quests; mixing with the followers of long-lost gods, underground cults, paramilitary organisations, pirates, thieves, and ghosts. As the years pass, though, Aileen’s past begins to catch up with her, and she finds herself tangled with vyres, Mahjarrat, mourners, and gods, and eventually has to face to consequences of her actions. The escapade that was _The_ _Temple of Ikov_ has turned into imprisonment under the Temple Knights and _While Guthix Sleeps,_ her first foray into Morytania has led to _The Lord of Vampyrium,_ and what began as a temporary job at the Senntisten excavation has ended with Guthix dead and a trace of his power marking Aileen as the guardian of Gielinor.

            In other words, the woman has plenty of blood on her hands.

            Before and after _The World Wakes_ alike, she’s motivated by two alternating drives: on one hand, the need to push on and flee whatever old ghosts — real or imaginary — haunt her, and on the other, the need to atone for her past mistakes and their consequences. While she has become somewhat more stable and restrained with age and added responsibilities, she has never quite got that rash streak under control.

            As the Sixth Age rolls on to the time after _Sliske’s Endgame,_ Aileen is in her late thirties, is Guthix’s appointed World Guardian, and has Jas’ ultimatum on her shoulders and  Sliske’s soul inside her head. She’s no longer entirely human by any shot, and becomes less and less human with each injury, each taxing fight. Having always been slow to trust or befriend people, she now feels increasingly alienated from her fellow mortals, though her loyalty continues to lie strictly with them.

            By now she’s a tired, battle-worn woman with a lingering Wyrd poisoning, a very strange soul parasite, and a job to do. By the look of it, it might be time for a change of scenery…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there's anything any of my readers are interested in knowing about more or think should be mentioned, please leave suggestions in the comments.


	3. Aileen's Fifth Age Timeline, Long Version

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long version of the events of the Fifth Age for Aileen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nota Bene: This differs from in-game canon in several respects:
> 
> Firstly, Aileen has not “done” all the quests. In some instances, their events have happened, but someone else was the agent involved. (E.g. the Miscellania quests and the Giant Dwarf.) In addition, there are a few that have never happened at all and never will. (Salt in the Wound and Birthright of the Dwarves, Shadow over Ashdale, all signature hero quests.) Finally, where quest reworks have taken place since 2008, she has “done” the older versions. (Prince Ali Rescue, Rune Mysteries, Death Plateau, Demon Slayer.)
> 
> Secondly, instead of having all 5th Age quests happen in a single year, I have scattered them over a long period of time. Given how long certain events would take in real time and given how much travelling there is to do, cramming them all into 365 days —starting with Cook’s assistant on the first day of the year and finishing up The World Wakes on New Year’s Eve —simply wouldn’t make any sense.
> 
> Third, in certain cases I have altered canon, left out this phase or that character, to make the events more streamlined, realistic, or slightly less ridiculous.

 

* * *

 

            136: On the 32nd of Rintra, Aileen Westbrook is born in Catherby, Kandarin, the middle one of John and Hannah Westbrook’s five children. Her family are farmers who rent a small lot of land at the foot of White Wolf Mountain.

   

             She has a remarkably uneventful childhood. If asked to recall it, there are a few things she might talk about. She could describe her family home (whitewashed cottage behind a crumbling stone wall; chickens, cowshed, mossy winch-well, a few fruit trees her mother calls an orchard). Further in the distance corn fields, ivy-covered oak-trees, the rocky slopes of the mountain. The sandy beach with its glass-clear water, the glittering Karamjan Sea. She might talk about working in the fields with her parents, or digging for clams at the beach during low tide. She might bring up her education, which consisted of a few years of grammar school under the tutelage of Brother Alden, a Saradominist monk from Asgarnia. Reading, writing, sums, a bit of scripture, a few words on history and geography. Lessons in the morning, work in the afternoon.

 

* * *

 

_“We weren’t poor. We just didn’t own anything much_ , _but there again, neither did anyone else I knew. We didn’t have food to waste, but I didn’t go hungry either. I always had shoes for winter, even if they were hand-me-downs from my siblings, and I always had clean clothes to wear. We feared for the crops like everyone, but our landlord was decent, and that goes a long way. Both my parents had good health. My father wasn’t a drinker or a gambler. And as far as I knew, that’s not being poor, that’s just how everyone was in Catherby._

_It was a village of farmers and fishermen. Stationary. Out of the way. Not many visitors. We got the odd ship from Karamja or Ardougne, a few travellers from up north. There were the dwarves under the mountain, and they’d sometimes come out to trade. I remember one young man went to the sea and a few others left for the city, but apart from that, it was all people who had lived and died there for generations. Until I left, the furthest I’d ever been was Seer’s Village.”_

 

* * *

 

 

            153: In the spring Aileen, 17, meets and falls in love with Stígandr Vídarsson, a Fremennik who has come to Catherby with a party of traders. She runs away with him on a whim, and the two travel to Rellekka, where she undergoes her trials. ( _Fremennik Trials,_[for my version see HERE](http://laetitialaetitii.tumblr.com/post/125861950292/you-mentioned-something-about-the-fremmenik-trials)) Having passed them she’s initiated into the tribe and the two marry, settling to live in the town.

   

             153-156: Ailín Jónsdottir, a Fremennik wife. One summer’s day, while gathering herbs in the woods, she enters a freshly uncovered cave in the mountains. There, frozen deep in the immemorial ice, she catches sight of a strange, frozen beast. (Beginning of  _Tale of the Muspah_ , to be finished years later.)

   

             156: Early in the spring, a hunting party stumbles upon a freshly-waken bear, and Stían is killed. Shortly afterwards, Aileen miscarries for the second time. Having lost too much in too short time and plagued by town rumours about herself, she decides to leave.

Unable to go home — where she’d face not only her shamed parents, but the swift judgement of the village community — Aileen, 20, travels alone through Kandarin once more, this time alone. At lastshe ends up in the city of Ardougne, where she finds employment as a housemaid and errand runner for the wizard Cromperty.

 

[FIC: DEPARTURE](http://laetitialaetitii.tumblr.com/fifthagecomplete#mce_temp_url#) (Leaving Rellekka.)

 

[FIC: HELP WANTED](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6333550&t=MzM2YzQwYzFlY2YzNWVhZjc3ZTljZTc1OTFmZWJkMTQ2NmNmMThmNSxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (In which Aileen arrives at Ardougne.)

   

            Over the months, she gets used to her new life in the big city. She immerses herself in her work, avoiding any superfluous contact with other people. To keep herself from thinking, she begins to read through her employer’s private library, and on the sly, develops an interest in magic, runecrafting, and history.

   

            Knowing fully well that if she wishes to remain a part of polite society, she cannot tell anyone the truth about her past. If a woman wants to be considered respectable in Ardougne, she cannot have eloped with a heathen man, or spent three years living among barbarians only to run away again — and consequently, Aileen learns to lie. When asked, she tells people that she’s a village girl from somewhere up north, and that she came to the big city to make a living as a maid.

Over time, the lie becomes easier to tell, and gradually forms into a lifelong habit.

           

[FIC: AFTER A WHILE](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6333874%2Fchapters%2F16784665&t=OTJlYzk2NzM1YTMxOTg3ZmRkNmE1NmQ0NWU0NWY0MjkzYTRjMmRlMCxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (Cromperty’s new housemaid is somewhat shady.)

   

            157: After over a year of secluded, monasterial living, Aileen receives an important assignment: She’s to take a valuable package from her employer to the Wizard’s Tower in Misthalin. On the ship from Ardougne to Draynor, she encounters and gets to know travellers and sailors, runaways and stowaways, mercenaries and adventurers –suspicious and unrespectable, but thoroughly free people. For the first time since arriving in the city, she begins to think about her future (and perhaps not dying in Cromperty’s kitchen.)

   

            Once she finally reaches the Wizards’ Tower, she presents the package to Archmage Sedridor, prompting the events of the old version of  _Rune Mysteries._ She stays at the Tower for a while, perusing the library, bothering the mages and chatting with the students, some of whom take pleasure at teaching a laywoman a few tricks and letting her have a go with the runes. She experiences teleportation for the first time in her life when Sedridor zaps her to Varrock, where she meets her future employer, Aubury. The two put together the rest of the research and return to Gielinor’s humans their access to rune essence (followed by a trip to the mines, much rejoicing, and a lot of beer at Blue Moon, plus a very helpful conversation with Dr Harlow). Taking the slow route, Aileen returns down the river to Lumbridge.

           

            While storms keep ships from sailing, her visit at the Tower prolongs and prolongs. Aileen naturally does not mind, since this means she gets to watch as rune production gets running again. New altars are discovered, new techniques are honed, and soon the feared ZMI begins to negotiate, in vain, for a share in the newly rediscovered mines. The same students she had hung around before now take her along to trips to the Water Altar, where she learns the basics of runecrafting.

 

* * *

 

 

            _”From the time I first set foot inside the Wizards’ Tower, I wanted to become a mage. I still can’t say whether it was more about fascination with magic and knowledge, or the sheer air of the place. It all seemed so calm and dignified — the wizards studying at the library, the students arguing about spell mechanics by the fountains outside. All I knew was that I desired desperately to be one of those wise, enchanting, blue-robed people. I wanted to have a desk covered in rune essence and ancient books, so that one day as I was sitting behind it, I could look up from my work, and see someone just as dirty and bedraggled as I had been, and ask “How can I help you?” with the same perfect poise as Wizard Valina, and discuss the mysteries of existence as casually as Archmage Sedridor.”_

 

* * *

 

    Towards the end of summer the weather settles, and Aileen returns to Ardougne. (On a stop-over at Brimhaven she has dinner at the local inn, and hears the story of a stolen Rantuki totem. Something for future reference.) Emboldened by her experiences, she asks if Cromperty would be willing to take her on as an apprentice, but is turned down. Soon, though, another possibility is discovered: the ZMI have taken control of the Ourania Altar near Ardougne, but a few independent runecrafters have managed to sneak past them. Cromperty has been buying runes from one such adventurer, but would Aileen be interested in trying her hand at covert rune-running?

 

               This is a dangerous, irresponsible idea. The Zamorakians guard their altar jealously, and do not always teleport intruders out with their intestines inside them. Naturally, Aileen accepts it. She learns to dodge the guards, scale the cliffs over subterranean lava pools and watch for quiet moments to slip in and craft her runes, vanishing before anyone returns. This is the time when she learns stealth and cunning, daring and risk-taking (or trains Thieving and Agility, if you want to put it like that). In short, she become addicted to adrenaline, which is a poor quality in a housemaid. Over time, her relationship with her employer becomes strained, and she begins to stash away some of the runes she crafts, practising magic with them in her spare time.

 

* * *

 

_“_ _After Cromperty turned my request down —and I had thought he would — rune-running was the next best thing, because runecrafter is the next best thing from being a wizard. My trips usually took about two days there and back, and during that time I was free. I wasn’t cooking any dinners and I wasn’t ironing any clothes. What I was was in constant danger, now about to fall to a pit, now about to be spotted by the guards, and all that time I felt a sense of exhilaration, drunk on adrenaline and the knowledge that I had outsmarted the ZMI mages themselves. And while it lasted, I never thought of the past or the future, or of any of the things I had lost.”_

 

* * *

 

     158: It’s springtime once more, and that means change. Aileen, 22, quits Cromperty’s service to go rogue and become an independent rune-runner. She buys essence on the black market, runs her trips to Ourania, and sells the end product to various customers. Who buys her runes? Mages, red and blue. Zamorakian monks. Wizards from the little tower being constructed south of the city. Travellers. Mercenaries. Criminals.

   

            These are her wild days. All her life, Aileen has tried (and save for a few faux-pas managed) to be as respectable as possible, draw little attention to herself, and stay on the good side of the law. Now she drifts from rental room to rental room, drinking at inns with soldiers and sailors, and selling her illicitly crafted goods to anyone with money.

   

             She also has a series of increasingly strange encounters. She comes across a woman crying by an overturned cart, and ends up sneaking prisoners out of the cells of a mysterious renegade warlord. She goes to deliver runes to a construction site and ends up meeting a homunculus. When the opportunity presents itself, she breaks into the grandest mansion in Ardougne to retrieve a stolen totem. On the way back from Karamja, she stops at the village of Witchaven, where something sinister is going on.)  _(Fight Arena, Tower of Life, Tribal Totem, Sea Slug._ Hell, maybe  _Monk’s Friend, Sheep Herder_ and  _Clock Tower_  happen somewhere along the way.)

 

[FIC: HANDELMORT MANSION](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7308034%2Fchapters%2F16598008&t=MTI4MmZlNjEzNjMwMGZiN2NmMmMwMTFhNjU0M2FiYWUyNGZhYjdjMixUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (A daring heist in the titular house, featuring crime, adventure, ill-begotten treasure and fruitcake.)

   

             Runecrafting at Ourania, however, is not a stable source of income. How much money she will have to use depends entirely on what kind of charges the altar assigns to her essence stones. How often she gets to go depends on the seasons, the weather and the amount of security the monks keep around. The selling price for runes varies. What’s more, she can now see increasingly clearly that certain things are badly amiss in Ardougne. She falls to talking with the butler of a noble family, and refuses to discuss what she witnesses in the sewer. She agrees to help a couple whose daughter has gone missing, and discovers unsettling things about the plague in West Ardougne.  _(Hazeel Cult, Plague City, Biohazard ft. teleporting the samples to Varrock rather than visiting the city)_

 

              One night at the Flying Horse Inn, she meets a hooded stranger, who is looking to hire someone for a very special undertaking. The next thing Aileen knows, a guardian of Armadyl is holding a knife across her throat, while the woman known as Marshal Idria interrogates her about her mission. Who does she work for? Does she know who and what he is? What does she know about the artefact she’s after? At the end, she’s released with a strict warning about her employer, and returns to the city.  _(Temple of Ikov, with Aileen deciding not to steal the Staff)._

   

            Her stay proofs brief, however. She knows too much. She has made one too many enemies. At every corner she rounds, she expects to run into Lucien’s thugs, or pale people wearing strange pendants at their necks. The mourners are holding half the city hostage, and she has got to their wrong side. When Aileen learns that the monks at Ourania have been tipped off about her rune-running trips, she knows it’s time to leave. And so after 158 has turned to 159, she boards a ship to Port Sarim.

 

* * *

 

 

            _”All that time, I had been riding high on a wave, unable to stop, knowing that looking down or trying to go slower would cause me to fall hard. I had been taking bigger and bigger risks, getting in too deep, daring the disaster to hit._

_For a while after coming back from the Temple of Ikov, I lived like a fugitive. I changed lodgings daily, and at night I would lie awake, half-expecting a knock on the door every second. At the market square in broad daylight, or at the piers at night I would wait for the doom to come, and tried to guess its shape. Would it be the Hazeel Cultists? Lucien’s thugs? Did the mourners know who had helped Elena escape, and would they come for me?_

_Then, one night at the Poison Arrow Pub, young Irwin Feaselbaum sat down at my table without greeting me. He was an assistant to a Zamorakian wizard, and had bought from me runes on several occasions. We had always got along well._

_“Aileen,” he was whispering to me now, as he leaned across the table. “You’ve got to stop with  Ourania. They know. The wizards know you’ve been there. They know your name and what you look like. I don’t know who tipped them off, but I heard old Invrigar talking about it. Stay out!” Without waiting for my response, he got, up, and was out of the door._

_Now besides everyone else, the ZMI was after me. And with my livelihood gone, I knew I had no other option than to leave. Thus, two days later, I got on a ship bound for Asgarnia, and didn’t look back.”_

 

* * *

 

               

            159: For the rest of the year, Aileen continues to flee eastward. She lands in Port Sarim, and makes a short detour back to Karamja at the behest of an old sea captain. Having been turned down after applying to run runes at the Tower (that’s what students are for), she stays briefly at Draynor Village, and then at its eponymous mansion.  _(Pirate’s Treasure, Ernest the Chicken, Animal Magnetism, Vampire Slayer ft. previous advice from Dr Harlow)_

   

             Carrying on across the swamps, she ends up for half a year in the small town of Lumbridge. Initially, she earns her upkeep doing odd jobs for the townspeople.  _(Cook’s Assistant, Sheep Shearer, Restless Ghost)_ While out crafting water runes, she runs to a party of adventurers in the swamp, and takes a trip to Entrana and then some.  _(Lost City)_

   

             After a wall collapses in the basement of the Castle, a series of strange events unfold.  _(The Lost Tribe.)_ Soon after establishing contact with the cave goblins, Aileen meets and befriends one of them, and introduces her to the surface world.  _(Death to Dorgeshuun)_ During Zanik’s stay, Hassan, the counsellor of the Emir of Al-Kharid, shows up in town, pleading for help in locating the kidnapped prince.  _(Prince Ali Rescue, the good old one, but now with Zanik along for good measure.)_  On the way back from Lady Keli’s jail, the three of them stumble across the H.A.M. hideout, and let’s say that His Highness gets a very good overview of illegal imprisonment in Misthalin. Zanik dies and is brought back, and with the Prince escorted back to Hassan’s care, Aileen continues her journey north.

   

             As sleet turns to snow and the trees by the Lum lose the last of their leaves, she arrives in Varrock, the great, filthy capital of the kingdom of Misthalin. She rents the garret room at Mrs Whitby’s lodging house in the southeast quarter, and finds a job running runes for Wizard Aubury.

 

* * *

 

 

            _”From the High Street of Varrock, block by block the squalor gets worse. It starts with the respectable shopkeepers and honest burghers along the main thoroughfare, and ends with speakeasies, knocking shops and a Zamorakian temple by the south wall._

_Going from the eastern bank, Mrs Whitby’s is the last reputable lodging house towards the south. Later I learned that her late husband had left the building to her back when it was worth something, and in order to pay first his debts and later her own bills, she had taken to having boarders in the spare bedrooms._

_She was fierce about being respectable, was Mrs Whitby. Having long ago delegated all practical work to her housemaid Sarah, (the most thoroughly subjugated servant I have ever known, who lived in the kitchen with her three children), she dedicated her time entirely to keeping an eye on her lodgers, in order to make sure none of us endangered the reputation of her establishment. If she found any fault with your character, you would know the reason why, and then had to find another place to stay._

_In Ardougne, Cromperty had never asked me for any personal details. Now, face to face with my about-to-be landlady, I had to think on my feet, and ended up telling her the somewhat abbreviated truth. I was from Kandarin, I said, and had married while young. We had moved from one country to another. Now that my husband was dead, I had come to Varrock to make my livelihood as a runecrafter._

_Mrs Whitby listened to all this without a comment. She sat in her chair by the fire, an aged woman about as broad as she was tall, clad in a black dress and the largest star of Saradomin I had ever seen. From several feet away, I could catch the whiff of cooking sherry. She did not, I could see, like the sound of runecrafting, but apparently thought it decent enough a job for a young woman._

_I knew this, because soon she reached for the book that doubled as a ledger and a record of her guests, and wrote down in it my personal information. Name, age, marital status, profession. That’s the name I was always known by in Varrock: Widow Westbrook.”_

 

* * *

 

 

                160: Out of danger, Aileen, 24, swears off all irregular behaviour for life. She makes her crafting trips to the four altars in the area, selling the finished product back to Aubury at a fixed price. She lives quietly (for Mrs Whitby won’t permit anything else), whiling away time at the Blue Moon or the library, or practicing a bit of magic with leftover runes. Occasionally she’ll help someone in need, a woman who has lost her cat, or an odd couple in love, but her wild days are definitely over.  _(Gertrude’s Cat, Gunnar’s Ground)_

            Or are they? During the summer of 160, she quits Aubury for a few months to work at the dig site, where she uncovers a stone tablet bearing the name of a strange, forgotten god. _(Dig Site)_

           

            Over time, her distractions and diversions grow more serious in nature. She becomes briefly tangled with a gang. She befriends the little old lady who lives in a tent in the town square, but is uncertain whether what happened next was real. A drinking pal, an intelligence man at the palace, hires her to test out the city’s new beacon network. On the way back, she descends to an accursed rift where emotions take physical forms. In other words, Aileen is picking up momentum.  _(Shield of Arrav, Old Demon Slayer, All Fired Up, Soul’s Bane)_

   

             161: Summertime is coming, and the drinking pal needs help again. This time the priest watching over the temple at Salve has gone silent, and someone needs to go and investigate the situation. Less than two weeks later she returns –pale, silent, with strange wounds on her chest, and shuts herself in the garret room.  _(Priest in Peril, In Search of Myreque have happened.)_

 

[FIC: LOST IN THE MYRE](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6333931%2Fchapters%2F14512621&t=NGViZWY5NDY4ZTc2ZWQ2YWQ4MGQwYWE3Nzg2NzMyODRjMDY0NWU5MCxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (Based loosely on In Search of the Myreque.)

   

             Soon afterwards, she returns to Morytania, and this time she’s gone for almost a year. She travels down to Burgh de Rott and back up again, getting mixed up with ghosts and werewolves, mad doctors and pirates, druids and priests.  _(In the Aid of the Myreque, Ghosts Ahoy, Creature of Fenkenstrein, Nature Spirit, Shades of Mort’ton, Cabin Fever)_ As winter approaches, she finally quits the wild country, leaving the Myreque at their newly-established base in the coast, but with a promise to return.

   

             Back in Varrock, she doesn’t know what to do. Unwilling to return to rune-running, she asks for a job at the dig site, but is instead offered a different kind of a commission: Accompany an archaeologist to the Kharidian Desert and document the findings for the Varrock Museum. So, as the winter of 161 turns to spring of 162, she travels across the desert with Asgarnia Smith, (meeting a certain inhabitant of Nardah on the way, while inspecting a certain statue) but in Pollnivneach their ways part, as he’s forced to flee the town with enraged bandits in hot pursuit. Stuck alone, Aileen ends up aiding a tribesman of theirs recover a crystal from a smoke-filled well. The two do not discuss further co-operation, but Eblis allows her to record what he knows about the locations of the other diamonds, which she mostly believes will have value for the historians and archaeologists in Varrock.  _(Desert Treasure begins, Smoke Diamond is recovered.)_

 

FIC: ANCIENT ARTEFACTS SERIES. [BRICKS,](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7389517&t=ZDMwYzY4ZmU0NzQ4ODBjNDk2NWNjMWY4NTNjNDA3ODg3Njk5MTA3MixUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) [THE STONE TABLET,](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7389589&t=ZmUwY2ZmNDM4ODZmZjYyY2Y1NzYyYmFkOTZhODYzZjJlMzgxOTlhNyxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0)[INTO THE DESERT](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7389607&t=Yzk3MWIzMzk5ZGVlYjExODY4NjE4MDIyM2I3YzdiOGNlNmY4M2Q2YSxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (Based on the beginning of Desert Treasure. Still missing two last instalments.)

   

             162: As summer approaches and the desert heats up, Aileen makes good of the promise she made to the Myreque. From Pollnivneach, she travels to Nardah (meeting again with a certain scholar), and up the Elid to the ruins of Uzer. From here, she crosses the short sea journey to Morytania.

     

            Aileen has arrived right when needed. From Burgh de Rott, she’s despatched twice to the vyre capital. She spends half a year in hell, first in the human ghetto of Meyerditch and the Myreque hideout, then all over the Morytania. During her travels across the northern part of the country she encounters the vyrelord Malak, for whom she unwittingly runs an errand of the dangerous kind.  _(Darkness of Hallowvale, Legacy of Seergaze; Desert Treasure continues with the recovery of the Blood Diamond)_

 

[FIC: THE MEIYERDITCH PAPERS](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7591228%2Fchapters%2F17273680&t=MTMzZTZiMTVlNThlOTBhMmUzYjIwZGQ4ODRmZjJmNzczYmVmNThlMyxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (An unfinished and possible abandoned diary-format fic detailing Aileen’s first visit to Meiyerditch.)

   

            Autumn of 162: Sick and injured, but content that she’s no longer needed in Morytania for now, Aileen, 26, meets a group of Fremennik mercenaries about to sail home. Tired of running away from her past, she decides to end her self-imposed exile and joins them. On the long and perilous journey the party stops first at Daemonheim, then at the Pirate’s Cove, whence it is forced by a storm to Lunar Isle. While the ship undergoes repairs, Aileen spends time on the island and acquaints herself with its people. Although being an adopted Fremennik counts against her, she’s also a runecrafter and a mage, which helps in her dealings with the locals. She learns plenty about Lunar Magics and negotiates with the elders of the Moonclan about peace talks with the Fremennik. During an excursion to the essence mine she meets a fellow traveller, and the two have certain very strange adventures together. When after New Year the weather clears and the ship is repaired she returns to Rellekka, bringing the peace offer with her. _(Lunar Diplomacy, Dream Mentor)_

   

            163: Having been tentatively accepted back, she lives quietly for a while. However, these are times of unrest for the people of the north, and Aileen, who has proved her diplomatic skills, is sent to negotiate with the mountain tribes. (There are also some excursions to the lighthouse and the nearby islands, but someone else ends up as the regent of Miscellania.)  _(Mountain daughter, events of the island quests, Horror from the Deep)_  Later, she makes her way to the frozen cave she had visited so long ago, and using the spells recommended by her acquaintance in Nardah, she thaws from the ice …a Mahjarrat? She thought she was  _over these_ things. _(Tale of the Muspah ends.)_  

 

            When visiting the mountain camp, she decides to scope out the supposed location of one of the crystals. Let’s say that the journey becomes slightly longer than intended, and that she spends quite a while among Hamal’s people recuperating.  _(Desert Treasure continues, Ice Diamond recovered.)_

   

             After Midsummer, things in Rellekka are well, and as the nights get longer, Aileen (who is the same restless soul as ever) leaves, but this time knowing that she’s welcome back any time.

           

             Tracing her old journey, she makes her way down to the waterfall to seek out the last crystal. ( _Desert Treasure continues with the Shadow Diamond recovered.)_ Afterwards, she stays briefly at the Tree Gnome Stronghold, where she learns about the gnomes’ troubles.  _(Beginning of The Grand Tree)_ For a few months she shuffles between Yanille, Ardougne, the Gnome Village and the Stronghold, rekindling old friendships and starting new ones (including Hazelmere) on the way.  _(Tree Gnome Village, Watchtower)_

   

             Things in Ardougne look bad, with more and more evil news coming from the plague-ridden half of the city. At the start of Septober, she’s glad to sail from Port Khazard on the first ship that alights.

     

            For the two next months, Aileen travels across the southern part of Karamja, so far uncharted territory for her. On the way, she visits the Nature Altar, and there is some unpleasantness involving zombies. As promised, she ships a cutting of the wild jade vine to Mr Dobson, Lord Handelmort’s gardener. While trying to find a vessel to take her to Al-Kharid, she discovers something sinister afoot at the ship yard and notifies the nearby gnome pilot.  _(Shilo Village, Back to my Roots, end of Tree Gnome Stronghold with someone else doing the final fight.)_

 

                Instead of the intended destination, her ship ends up in Menaphos, only to find out that the city’s port is closed due to a plague. Deposited on the coast, Aileen has some dealings with a crazy cat lady in a tent and runs around in all manners of tombs.  _(Icthlarin’s Little Helper, Contact!, Dealing with Scabaras.)_

   

            By winter, she’s done in the city and heads to Jaldraocht. Years after first meeting Asgarnia Smith, she finally has her reward …and another bloody Mahjarrat on her hands. It’s starting to get unsettling.  _(End of Desert Treasure)_

 

              Oh, and then when she thinks it must be safe to poke about in some ruins near the Bandit camp, why, it’s two more of the same. They’re now coming in pairs! Leen begins to suspect someone’s playing a joke on her.  _(Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for_   _Enakhra’s Lament.)_

   

            Mahjarrat and more Mahjarrat! Happy New Year, Aileen!

   

             164: Aileen is disconcerted, but determined to keep another old promise, that of preparing her archaeological notes for the Museum of Varrock. In order to complete them, she crosses the river to Nardah, where she seeks the assistance of her old friend Ali the Wise. (From whose house another guest has just cleared out, by the way.) Over several days, she relates to him the story of the Diamonds of Azzanadra, the adventures she had recovering them, the tale of the rivals stuck in the nearby temple, as well as what became of the frozen Muspah. At his behest, she then tells him about her Mahjarrat-oriented adventures in Ardougne, concluding with the story of the Temple of Ikov. At the end, Ali, who has grown more and more worried with each session, makes an offer: Since it appears that the Mahjarrat are something of a menace to humans, and since he has quite a broad understanding of their history, —whereas Aileen has so much practical experience in dealing with them — he suggests that they co-operate to research the matter together. Having accepted the proposition, Aileen spends three months in Nardah, helping Ali compile notes on the Mahjarrat and their upcoming ritual, writing her archaeological report, and making good use of the scholar’s library. They make a few excursions together. These involve the restoration of Queen Senliten’s mastaba, the repairing of a magical clay man, and investigating the cause for a drought in the town, although for some reason, the spirits bar Ali from entering the cave. On another occasion, Aileen visits Pollnivneach, and has another run-in with the cat lady. _(Missing my Mummy, The Golem, Spirits of the Elid, and Smoking Kills.)_

   

             Finished with her report, _An Archaeological Survey of the Northern Kharidian Desert,_ Aileen leaves for Varrock to hand it in. As she prepares to go, Ali gives her a slayer gem he has altered to function as a private communication device. (This will play a major role in many of her upcoming adventures.)

   

            Along the way, her archaeological credentials earn her a brief job near Lumbridge, namely, in Dorgesh-Kaan. The unpleasantness with Sigmund is barely over, when a surface goblin arrives at the underground city, and Zanik leaves with him for Kandarin while Aileen returns to Varrock. Much later she hears her friend had “disappeared into the light” after reaching the goblin home world.  _(Another Slice of H.A.M. and Land of the Goblins, with Aileen mostly absent from the second.)_

   

            On the road to the city, she runs to a man named Rat, and proceeds to uncover a Zamorakian plot.  _(What Lies Below)_

   

             Impressed with her skilfulness, other patrons approach her. As Aileen has proved herself capable of dealing with dangerous monsters in hazardous environments, how would she feel about a trip to the deserted island of Crandor? On the way, she visits a dwarven mine, a prison, and the tower of a grief-addled necromancer. When the dragon is dead, Aileen returns to Varrock a hero. After that, there is the business with her old friend Mr Fitzharmon, his sons, and some demons, but it all ends well.  _(Dragon Slayer, Family Crest.)_

           Around the same time, Aileen — who by now is quite tired of the treatment of rune-runners — trades certain runecrafting secrets with a ZMI mage, thus putting an end to the Tower wizards’ monopoly on mining essence and freeing up the runecrafting market. Having leaked the essence mine teleportation spell to the Zamorakians, she promptly leaks the Abyssal teleport spell to the Saradominists to keep the field level.  _(Abyss Miniquest.)_

   

            Winter 164-165: Before she has the chance to enjoy what renown her explorations have earned her, another threat rises: zombies have been spotted near the Wilderness border! The tracks lead to an abandoned Chaos Temple, and finally to…well, if it’s not Zemouregal, the infamous enemy of Varrock, and also …a Mahjarrat. Keeping Ali in the loop, Aileen investigates the matter. At the end, the descendant of Arrav is discovered, the city is saved, and Ali is oddly amused.  _(Defender of Varrock)_

   

             For a while Aileen leads a quiet life, living off her rewards, meeting old friends and catching up on her reading.

   

             Spring 165: One day while visiting the dig site, Aileen encounters a mysterious archaeologist, who enlists her help in restoring the ancient temple she had discovered years ago. (Her freshly earned credentials as an honorary member of the Archaeological Society of Varrock come in very handy.)

   

            After setting to work, she contacts Ali in Nardah to let him know that she has encountered another Mahjarrat. The scholar (who seems to find the Zarosians less dangerous than the Zamorakians) urges her to help Azzanadra, and to keep him updated. After Aileen tells him that she’s to travel to the frozen north, Ali gives him another task: scope out Zemouregal’s Fortress, and see if she can find out anything about his plans.  _(Beginning of Temple at Senntisten and The Curse of Arrav)_

 

            Aileen travels through the Wilderness, going first on a canoe along an underground tunnel, then on foot across the trackless wastes, until she reaches Ghorrock. (And for anyone asking why she doesn’t just a) teleport or b) catch a mine cart to Keldagrim and then go on a boat up north, it’s  _quod causae._ )

   

 

             In the north, her Fremennik survival skills (and freshly learned Ancient spells) serve her well, as she first recovers the Frostenhorn from the Ghorrock Fortress, after which she (all the while consulting Ali on the gem) tunnels into Zemouregal’s place. After retrieving the heart of Arrav and several folders’ worth of Zemo’s paperwork, she leaves the way she came. On the way back to Varrock, she stops by at an abandoned farm, where further adventures ensue. _(Spirit of Summer, Summer’s End, end of Curse of Arrav.)_

   

             Aileen returns to the dig site three months later, delivering the Frostenhorn to Azzanadra, who has brought over a crew of desert bandits to work on the temple. The restoration is progressing as planned, but due to the Mahjarrat’s behaviour, Aileen is beginning to have serious misgivings about aiding him. Ali, however, is very reassuring.

   

            Up next, it is time for her to travel to Morytania to fetch the Barrows Icon. In order to cut down the journey, she takes a boat down the Salve to Burgh de Rott. The Myreque do not need her at the moment, but in the fashion Ali had taught her, she leaves them an altered slayer gem they can use to call her in the case of an emergency.

   

            Back at the dig site again, Aileen witnesses the power of Zaros, as Azzanadra restores contact with his lord and god. Shocked by what she has seen, she grows less and less easy about continued co-operation with him, but two things placate her: Firstly, Ali continues to assure her that the Zarosians pose little threat to humans. Second, there are the rewards. Besides the tome on Ancient Curses, she receives several crates of runestones. Death, blood, law, and soul runes, more than she could ever have afforded, delivered together with an ancient Zarosian combat staff and a note from Azzanadra, urging her to “practice her spells in preparation for what’s to come.” Attached to the note is a receipt for a bank deposit, made by a Dr Nabanik. A sizable amount of gold, for “living expenses”, to be paid on a monthly basis.

   

             For Aileen, who has struggled all her adult life to pay for anything more than bare necessities, economic security is almost unthinkable. At the same time, it ties her to Azzanadra, making her even more aware of not having received the one thing she had asked for —an explanation on exactly what Zaros would need her for. This sets the pattern for her dealings with the Zarosians: she’s treated well, praised, rewarded royally for her work, but always kept in the dark. As a result, she continues to co-operate, but never quite trusts them.  _(End of Temple at Senntisten.)_

 

              Having been dismissed by Azzanadra, and not needed by either the Myreque, King Roald, or any of her other patrons, Aileen decides to head to Rellekka. Her intention is to travel to Lumbridge and take the underground train from Dorgesh-Kaan to Keldagrim, but strange events stall her: someone has been poisoning the goblin children… _(Chosen Commander)_ With Bandos vanquished and Zanik back to herself, Aileen continues to Keldagrim.

 

              In Keldagrim, all is not well. One of the consortium companies have recently left and the city is in turmoil.  _(Giant Dwarf has happened, somehow.)_ She spends a few weeks there, but remembers little of them.  _(Forgettable Tale of a Druken Dwarf)_

 

              Autumn of 165: Aileen returns to Rellekka. Apart from some more negotiation in the islands and a very loud feast thrown in honour of Chieftain Brundt, life is good and peaceful.  _(Glorious Memories)_

   

            166: The ice is breaking on the frozen sea, and deep below an ancient evil stirs. While Aileen is on a visit to Lunar Isle, a delirious stranger is washed on the island’s shore, and a journey to his dream-world reveals that all the Fremennik are in mortal danger. She returns to Rellekka to warn her people, only to find herself in the pandemonium of the dagannoth attack. During the trip to Waterbirth Island, Aileen comes out of the closet as a practiced mage, since it’s no longer possible to conceal her runes and staff.

   

             Afterwards, there are great many casualties, but Rellekka is saved. There are funerals, but there is also much rejoicing, as the Fremennik have united against their common enemy.  _(Blood Runs Deep)_

 

              Having become an envoy of sorts, Aileen tours the Fremennik Province. She visits The Fossegrimen, the lighthouse and the outpost settlement, including the shack of Otto the Godblessed. While in the region, she decides to drop by at the Grand Tree. Everything seems to be in order, until one night at Blurberry’s she gets to talking to the mage Brimstail, who has come to enjoy a few drinks, new pet in tow. This leads to a chain of events that takes Aileen first to Hazelmere and the Tree Gnome Village, and later to the deadly tunnels to Arposandra.

 

                At the end, Hazelmere teleports both of them to the safety of his house. As they sit on the rattan chairs on the beach and watch the sun go down over the Poison Waste, the old gnome begins to muse about this being “the winter of his life.” When Aileen asks him to clarify his meaning, Hazelmere launches on a short speech about a vision he had, a vision involving both of them. Once done, he refuses to discuss it any further, and goes on with his pineapple daiquiri.

 

               With the first third of the year behind, Aileen heads to Ardougne to see how things are. While she enjoys reconnecting with old friends, the feeling of not being alone never quiet quits her, and she decides to leave. As she prepares to board a ship at the harbour, instead of a customs officer she’s greeted by a band of armed guards. She’s under arrest for unspecified crimes, and is brought to the castle in chains. Face to face with King Lathas, Aileen learns her charges: She has sabotaged the work of the Mourners, and thus risked spreading the plague and endangering all of Kandarin.

           

            Now she has two options (no defence speeches allowed): She can hang for attempted mass murder, or she can go and scout out a passage to the Elven lands of the west. She’s to travel through the Underground Pass to the Well of Voyage, where she must plant a teleportation target in order to let troops travel to the spot effortlessly.

 

                It’s relatively easy to see that she chooses the latter. And down the hole she goes, to the tunnels underneath the mountains, where voices whisper in her dreams and the damned, soulless servants of Iban haunt the depths of the pit. _(Underground Pass)_ When she finally reaches Well of Voyage and activates the port-a-pad (It was one of Cromperty’s inventions, you know), one of the first to travel through is Lathas’ messenger. He hands her a letter bearing the royal seal, inside which she finds a very simple note: She can either return and be hanged, or proceed to Tirannwn to kill King Tyras. _)_

 

              It’s another simple one, and so she goes. When the deed is done and it’s already too late, the elves tell her about the Arandar Pass, through which she can escape further assignments by Lathas.  _(Regicide, start Roving Elves. Yes, I know canonically Tyras left in 168 and died in 169, but I think this is negotiable.)_

 

              When late in the summer Aileen lands in the marshes south of Eagle’s Peak (and enjoys the hospitality of some gnomes) the signals on her contact gems return for the first time in months. The first call comes from Ali, who has been informed — through one of his mysterious channels — that the Staff of Armadyl has been stolen from the Temple of Ikov. The identity of the culprit is unknown, but the hints point at Lucien. What can they do?  _Wait._

 

              The second is the Myreque one, and though the signal is broken, the message is clear enough: In Burgh de Rott, the town is full of mercenaries and Vanstrom is on the move. During the past four years Morytania has become destabilized, and now the Drakans are bent on squashing the resistance. Their old ally’s help is needed dearly.

   

             Unable to ignore the call, Aileen travels straight to Morytania. Once more, she has to infiltrate the dreaded ghetto of Meyerditch, this time continuing up to the city of Darkmeyer, where she learns more about her darker nature than she had ever bargained for. After Vanstroms death she returns to Burgh de Rott to bide her time.  _(Branches of Darkmeyer)_

   

             Soon afterwards, Vansecula informs them that the time to confront Drakan has come. The journey takes Aileen to the Castle, to a world under another sun, and finally face to face Lord Drakan.  _(Lord of Vampyrium, which continues over to next year)_

 

              167: Aileen starts the year recovering from Drakan’s beating at Paterdomus. Thinking the Myreque finished, she returns to Varrock, but is soon summoned by King Roald for one last time.  At the beginning of Bennath, 167, humans and vyres square off at the bridge over the River Salve. There is an army of darkness. There is Drezel, dead on the ground. There is a great, winged beast. There is a sarcophagus, and a tower, and a lot of things that can’t be. And finally, there is an icyene. She doesn’t remember much of it afterwards. But when the after-effects of the poison are gone, Morytania has a new government.  _(River of Blood)_

 

              For the next month, Aileen, 31, recovers at Castle Drakan, watching the new administration take form. She’s intermittently ill, suffering from fever and delirium. Although the worst of it clears, she suffers for the rest of her life of bouts of sickness involving headaches, fainting, fatigue and muscular weakness, as well as hallucinations (mostly olfactory and auditory) and flashbacks of the initial poisoning. She has long talks with Veliaf, Safalaan and Efaritay, and considerably shorter ones with Vanescula. As summer approaches, she declares her work in the country done, and departs for Varrock.

 

[FIC: THE VIEW FROM THE TOWER](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7548298&t=N2VlMTg4MzU1ZmU5Mzk5MGJhOWY4YWJhNDdjZmMxYmJlNmE5ZGVlOCxUbU4zdWpESg%3D%3D&p=&m=0) (Last days in Morytania.)

   

             Do I have to say her work is not done?

   

             Indeed, it is not. Before Aileen has the chance to relax, a messenger arrives at the Varrock Palace. Her presence is requested by the druids of Taverley, who being concerned with both the balance of the world and unusual potions, wish to discuss the Morytanian affair with her. With the letter arrives a neatly packaged teleport tablet, and the instructions to seek out the druidess Ivy Sophista.

 

              It should not be difficult. Aileen, despite having grown up right on the other side of White Wolf Mountain, has barely been to Asgarnia, which makes the prospect all the more exciting. A druid village should be beautiful, and perhaps she can learn a thing or two about herblore there. She packs her gear, gives quick farewells to her friends, and breaks the tablet.

 

              At Taverley, she does meet Ivy Sophista. Then she meets Thaerisk Cemiphier. And all too soon, she meets a group of Temple Knights who storm the house. She’s seized, and then it all goes dark.

   

             A while later, Aileen wakes up in a windowless cell, chained up and under a teleblock spell. Her weapons and her communication gems are gone. The guard, a man wearing white plate armour, informs her that she’s at Falador Castle, and that “her case is awaiting processing.” On her wrist is a manacle-like bracelet set with two bluish stones, the function of which will become clear very soon, during her first Temple Knight trial.

   

            This takes place a few days later, and to call it a kangaroo court would be an insult to kangaroo courts everywhere. Present in the dimly lit room are the following: Representing the Falador Knights, Sir Amik Varze. Representing the Temple Knights, Sir Tiffy Cashien, Brother Akrisae, and the woman known by the codename Savant. Representing the druids of Taverley, Thaerisk Cemiphier. And representing the Guardians of Armadyl, Marshal Idria.

   

            There are no formal charges. Rather, she’s interrogated for hours about her personal history and the people she has worked for. At the end a verdict of sorts is pronounced: She’s a known collaborator of both the Mahjarrat Lucien and Hazeel, as well as King Lathas of Ardougne. Now, thanks to her work locating the Temple of Ikov, Lucien has acquired the artefact known as the Staff of Armadyl, and poses an immediate threat to all mortals. She has, through her actions, repeatedly brought to danger the safety and stability of Gielinor, and has been deemed a threat to the Guthixian Edicts and the world peace that has continued since the end of the God Wars. As such, she is to be detained indefinitely.

   

            However, as she has also proved herself a resourceful agent for other organisations, they have an offer for her: she can work for the Temple Knights and the freshly formed Crux Eqal in order to undo the damage she has caused. The other option? Stay locked in a cell in Falador.

   

            Another easy plea deal for our Aileen.

   

             As the court turns into a regular meeting, the meaning of her newly-acquired bracelet is explained. It is a tracker-talker-teleporter. The blue gems, of course, are altered slayer gems. (Or in actual fact, slayer gems are a civilian version of the Temple Knight communication gems, originally used for their commorbs.) In addition to two-way talking, the bracelet can be used as a tracking device (they will always know where she is), a teleportation beacon (anyone can be teleported to her location) and can also be teleported from a distance. Of course, there is finally the destruct function — a potent explosive spell, which can either be triggered by any serious attempt to remove the bracelet, or by a long-distance signal.

   

             It is a very long time before the thing is taken off.

   

            Aileen’s first assignment in service of the Crux Eqal is to find a man named Movario, who works for Lucien.   _(While Guthix Sleeps)_ For the rest of the year, she tours the world, travelling to Feldip Hills (with a detour to Oo’glog), to Port Khazard and Draynor Village. She infiltrates a subterranean fortress under the Wilderness and a hideout in the frozen north. She wears the robes of Surok Magis. She watches her friends die from the chapel roof. And finally, she descends in a beam of blue light to the depths of the Chasm of Lights.

 

              Before the tormented demons can make short work of Aileen, the hated bracelet saves her life, and she’s teleported back to Falador Castle.

 

              (The Temple Knights’ medical care is as advanced as their communication technology. The only ones who do either better are the Moonclan. 167 turns to 168 and she barely notices.)

   

             168: Early in the spring, it is time for Aileen’ second trial. This time, the gist of the thing is whether she let Lucien get away on purpose. The proceedings go on for several days, with both Mazchna and Harrallak Menarous testifying on her behalf. But the words of retired mercenaries and demons weigh little in a Temple Knight court, and things seem grim until a mysterious guest arrives at the Castle. He has travelled all the way from Nardah, and would like to deliver a testimony on Aileen’s part in deflecting Zemouregal’s attack against Varrock. Furthermore, he brings a statement from King Roald of Misthalin on the matter.

 

                Afterwards, Aileen is cleared of her collaboration charges, but not freed. Ali hangs around at the Castle for a few days before returning home, with the words that “they might meet sooner than she thinks.”

              For the next half a year, Aileen — who continues to opt for work over imprisonment — participates on several missions. During the first one she tracks down a dangerous mass murderer.  _(Wanted!)_ The second involves a village she mentioned during her initial interrogations, the run-down fishing community of Witchaven in Kandarin. Despite her best efforts, the situation is left unresolved.  _(Slug Menace, Kennith’s Concerns, and absolutely no bloody Salt in the Wound.)_

 

                The last one is way trickier. She travels to the Void Knights’ outpost, then all over Asgarnia and Karamja, (including the beaten-down Eastern Harbour), once and again creeping into the Kinshra Fortress, to at last end up in an underground temple filled with pests and knights of all orders. She saves Jessika, and votes for the immediate execution of Grayzag.  _(Quiet Before the Swarm, A Void Dance and The Void Stares Back)_

   

            Between missions, Aileen lives at the Castle, but is allowed to move in the city. She reads a lot. She studies Temple Knight technology as much as she’s allowed to. She receives visits from Thaerisk, Harrallak and Jessika, and having been denied her communication gems, writes letters to Ali, Veliaf and her in-laws. She takes long walks at Falador Park, and sits between the statues by the pond.

 

               In Fentuary 168, the long-dreaded news arrive: Dragonkin have been sighted at the pirate outpost of Mos’Le Harmless.  _(Ritual of the Mahjarrat)_  A ship sails to the island, where everyone’s worst fears are confirmed. On the way back, Aileen is granted a short leave while on the coast of the Kharidian Pensinsula: She’s permitted to row a boat to the shore, and make the short walk to Nardah, where she informs her friend of the situation, enlisting him on the effort. (The Crux Eqal knows his worth of the old.)

 

* * *

 

 

_I asked Ali the Wise about the last shelf. He said the notebooks and scrolls on it are from a bygone era, relics of a lost world, most of them fragments and almost all somehow damaged._

_When I asked if I could have a look at them (and he knows how much I love old books) he looked away, and said it wasn’t the time for that yet. Turning his back to me, he picked up the canopic jar from the table and studied it carefully, as if the painted palmettes and lotuses held an answer he was looking for._

_Finally, he looked up again._

_“I’ll tell you what”, he said. “If we both survive attending the Mahjarrat Ritual, I’ll translate some of them for you. If only you survive, you can come down here and read whatever you want if you can only understand it.”_

_I said we had a deal._

 

* * *

 

 

            _(A Tail of Two Cats_  has not happened yet, by the way. The code to reaching Kethsi is discovered through other means, probably Temple Knight tech.)

 

              In Falador, Ali the Wise explains the importance of the upcoming Mahjarrat Ritual as a chance to attack Lucien. In the meantime, Aileen visits the ruined plane of Kethsi, where she discovers certain artefacts to bring back, and a plan begins to form. On Ali’s recommendation, she’s sent to visit the Ritual Site. Once more, she stays in the frozen north, living in tents and caves, making preparations for the big event. In Wintumber, a battle is fought in Ghorrock, Akrisae and Idria perish alongside many others, and Jhallan is sacrificed. At the end, Lucien is dead, and the Dragonkin fly off in deadly rage.

 

              169: Falador. While Edgeville burns, Aileen recovers from her injuries, bedridden. At some point, Ali visits, and delivers an explanation of sorts. Yes, he has been reporting on her to Azzanadra all along. He made sure she would be at the dig site, qualified and welcome, when his superior showed up. It was necessary. No, he doesn’t know what Zaros intends do with her. No, he wouldn’t tell if he did. The two make peace of sorts, but their old intimacy does not return.

   

             As spring draws near in Asgarnia, Aileen’s third trial approaches. To be precise, her case is reviewed. Her merits are measured against her offences, and although the temple Knights would love to keep her in their ranks, something interferes: character witnesses. The first to arrive is Grand Vizier Hassan, adviser to Emir Ali Mirza of Al-Kharid, who has not forgotten about being delivered from kidnappers. The next one is Ur-Tag, head of the Council of Dorgesh-Kaan. Then there is Commander Tyr of the Void Knights. And finally, there is Efaritay Hallow herself.

 

              These are Saradominists, and they’re constitutionally unable to talk back at a sainted Icyene. And so, after two and half years under the Temple Knights, Aileen’s bracelet is removed, and she’s free to go.

   

            What she mostly is by now is tired. Tired of her long imprisonment, tired of being used as a pawn in the games of others, tired of death and suffering. Unable to plan ahead, she leaves Falador on foot, and goes to stay a while in Burthorpe with Harrallak, whose stories awaken in her a curiosity about the Eastern Lands. She has a chat with a cat, and shows him the items she recovered from Kethsi.  _(A Tail of Two Cats in shortened form)_ She drinks at the Toad and the Chicken, and bonds with the men of the Imperial Guard over shared hatred of Falador. Later, she volunteers on a mission scouting out a mountain path for their troops.  _(Death Plateau, the old version)._  Eventually, she grows tired of floundering, and decides to return to Rellekka, leaving on a mine cart for Keldagrim, where years ago she had lost her memory.

           

            Here again, she lands in a hot mess involving cops, Chaos Dwarves and royal succession, and having had one too many close shaves with death, leaves for home. _(Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf, King of the Dwarves, but no Birthright. Keldagrim, like Witchaven, remains on the edge for ever more.)_

     

            Life among the Fremennik is peaceful. She lives in her old home. She practices her skills as a herbalist. Nightmares continue to plague her, but the mark on her wrist grows lighter. Her old communication gems remain dark. She’s not needed in Varrock or Dorgesh-Kaan, Senntisten or Darkmeyer.

     

            Among the friendships she rekindles is that Of Vídar, Stígandr’s older brother, now a widower for many years himself. You can see where this is going, can’t you? Fortunately, they’re both old enough and have been married enough to be fairly sensible about these things. And as both Aileen’s age and her achievements have bought her a certain amount of social immunity, no-one cares much whose bed she sleeps in throughout the bright, warm summer nights.

   

            One day, as the wind is already growing colder, there is another adventure. It is her old ally Koschei this time, who asks her to go and find a certain tree he has been dreaming of. It all ends, as you can guess, with Aileen in a cave with Kharshai. There is some talk, but after a while the council decides unanimously that there is no reason why a Mahjarrat could not be a Fremennik. The people of Rellekka are re-introduced to their hero, who tells them his (much abbreviated) story and there is some feasting and rejoicing for good measure. After a few days, there are also visits from Enakhra and Akthanakos.

   

            Despite having sworn off any further dealings with Mahjarrat after the Ritual, Aileen now finds in Kharshai a friend and a confidant who understands both the human and superhuman sides of matters, and who does not hold back any information on the Mahjarrat or Zaros. In the coming years, the cave under Rellekka will fill up some of the empty space left by the house in Nardah and Hazelmere’s cane shack.

   

             Towards the end of the year, a message finds its way to her. It is from a young archaeologist Aileen had met once or twice at the dig site, and who is now asking her to join him on an excavation near Ardougne, promising her the find of the century. Her expertise would be dearly appreciated. Aileen, who does not care much for the northern winters, obliges and promises him a brief visit.

 

              It’s all over in days. In the chambers under the earth, Aileen sides with the Guthixians. Even after everything she’s been through, standing up to Azzanadra terrifies her, and she never ceases to wonder what would have happened had Sliske not interfered.

   

            Two weeks after receiving her gift from Guthix, she wakes up at Seer’s Village. Outside her window, glowing, green butterflies sparkle in the winter’s night.

_(The Fifth Age ends with the death of Guthix and the abolition of the Edicts. Aileen has now become the World Guardian.)_

 


	4. Aileen's Fifth Age Timeline, Short Version

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a bare-bones list of the 5th Age quests my to-be World Guardian has done. It details little more than their order, approximated duration and any moral choices and special circumstances.
> 
> The number at the beginning of each paragraph marks the period of months a quest or a sequence of events takes. Since the RuneScape calendar months are of unequal lengths, I used the real-life ones to make counting easier for myself. A sequence starts roughly at the beginning of the initial month and ends roughly at the end of the latter one.
> 
> The first years are fairly uneventful, and thus are not broken down.

 

* * *

 

136 Born in Catherby.

 

153-156 Elopes to Rellekka with Stígandr,  _Fremennik Trials._ Lives among the Fremennik for the next three years. In 154, beginning of _The Tale of the Muspah._ In the spring of 156 Aileen’s husband is killed, and she leaves for Ardougne.

 

FEBRUARY 156-MARCH 157:  Ardougne, in Cromperty’s service. Nothing interesting happens.

3 APRIL-JULY: Trip to Misthalin.  _Old Rune Mysteries._

7 JULY-DECEMBER: Back to Ardougne, rune-running at Ourania Altar.

 

158

12 JANUARY-DECEMBER: Quits Cromperty to run runes independently. Wild days.  _Fight Arena, Tower of Life, Tribal Totem, Sea Slug. Monk’s Friend, Sheep Herder and Clock Tower,_ while she’s at it. Towards the end of the year, there are  _Hazeel Cult, Plague City, Biohazard ft. teleporting the samples to Varrock rather than visiting the city,_ and finally,  _Temple of Ikov._ Having had her pants scared off by Idria’s warnings, Aileen leaves Ardougne on a ship to Asgarnia.

 

159

3 JANUARY-MARCH: In Ardougne, flees east to Port Sarim.  _Pirate’s Treasure,_ continues to Misthalin

1 APRIL: In Draynor.  _Ernest the Chicken, Animal magnetism, Vampire Slayer,_ continues to Lumbridge

6 MAY-OCTOBER: In Lumbridge.  _Lost City, Cook’s Assistant, Sheep Shearer, Restless Ghost, The Lost Tribe, Death to Dorgeshuun & Prince Ali Rescue. _Continues to Varrock.

2 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Varrock. Room at Mrs Whitby’s, job with Aubury.

 

160

4 JANUARY-APRIL: Rune-running.  _Gertrude’s Cat, Gunnar’s Ground._

3 MAY-JULY: Summer job and trespasses.  _The Dig Site, Shield of Arrav._

5 AUGUST-DECEMBER: More rune-running, more trespasses.  _Demon Slayer, All Fired Up, Soul’s Bane._

 

161

2 JANUARY-MARCH: Still in Varrock, still running runes. At the end of March _, Priest in Peril, In Search of the Myreque,_  brief return to Varrock before going back to Morytania.

9 MARCH-NOVEMBER: Morytania.  _In the Aid of the Myreque, Ghosts Ahoy, Creature of Fenkenstrein, Nature Spirit, Shades of Mort’ton, Cabin Fever_ At the end of November, returns to Varrock.

1 DECEMBER: Visits dig site, accepts job in the Kharidian Desert.  _Desert Treasure starts._

 

162

2 JANUARY-FEBRUARY: The Desert. Meeting Ali the Wise at the Muspah statue, arriving in Pollnivneach where Aileen meets Eblis.  _Desert treasure continues with the recovery of the Smoke Diamond._

7 MARCH-SEPTEMBER: Aileen travels to Burgh de Rott via Nardah.  _Darkness of Hallowvale, Legacy of Seergaze; Desert Treasure continues with the recovery of the Blood Diamond._

3 OCTOBER-DECEMBER: Aileen leaves Morytania the way she came, joins a group of Fremennik mercenaries about to sail home by the northern route. One stop at Daemonheim. Second stop at Pirates’ Cove and then Lunar Isle.  _Lunar Diplomacy, Dream Mentor._

 

163

6 JANUARY-JUNE: Return to Rellekka. Touring the Fremennik Province.  _Mountain daughter, Horror from the Deep, events of the island quests with someone else ending up as the regent of Miscellania. Tale of the Muspah ends, Desert Treasure continues with the recovery of the Ice Diamond._

2 JULY-AUGUST: Visit to the Gnome Stronghold, shuffling around Kandarin. _Desert Treasure continues with the recovery of the Shadow Diamond._   _Start of the Grand Tree. Tree Gnome Village, Watchtower._

2 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: Boat to Karamja to investigate the shipyard.  _Back to my Roots. Shilo Village. End of The Grand Tree with someone else doing the final fight._

 2 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Ship to Menaphos.  _Icthlarin’s Little Helper, Contact! and Dealing with Scarabas._ At the end of the year,  _the end of Desert Treasure, followed by Enakhra’s Lament._ Travels to Nardah to see Ali the Wise.

 

164

3 JANUARY-MARCH: Nardah. Aileen stays at Ali’s house and the two agree to collaborate on researching the Mahjarrat.  _Missing my Mummy, The Golem, Spirits of the Elid, Smoking Kills._ Before Aileen leaves for Varrock, Ali gives her a contact gem.

2 APRIL-MAY: A stop at Dorgesh-Kaan.  _Another Slice of HAM, Land of the Goblins with Zanik travelling to Kandarin alone._ Continues to Varrock.

7 JUNE-DECEMBER: Varrock-based adventures.  _What Lies Below, followed by Dragon Slayer, Family Crest, and Abyss Miniquest._

 

165

3 JANUARY-MARCH: Varrock.  _Defender of Varrock,_ followed by some spare time.

3 APRIL-JUNE:  _Temple at Senntisten, Curse of Arrav, Spirit of Summer and Summer’s End,_ all during the same trip to the Wilderness. During the trip to the Barrows, leaves the Myreque a contact gem. After the end of TaS, Azzanadra grants Aileen a monthly “allowance”, freeing her from economic unsafety but binding her closely to the Zarosian faction. Aileen leaves for Rellekka via the Dorgesh-Kaan-Keldagrim railway.

3 JULY-SEPTEMBER: Dorgesh-Kaan,  _Chosen Commander._ Journey to Keldagrim, where  _The Giant Dwarf has happened. Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf ensues, lasts for a few weeks._ Continues to Rellekka.

3 OCTOBER-DECEMBER: Rellekka.  _Glorious Memories,_ peace.

 

166

2 JANUARY-FEBRUARY: Rellekka,  _Blood Runs Deep._ Tours the Fremennik Province, ends up visiting at the Grand Tree.

2 MARCH-APRIL: Gnomes.  _Eyes of Glouphrie and Path of Glouphrie. L_ eaves Hazelmere’s house for Ardougne.

4 MAY-AUGUST: Arrest in Ardougne, press-ganged to do King Lathas’ dirty work.  _Underground Pass, Regicide, start of Roving Elves._ Aileen leaves through Arandar Pass.

4 SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: Having been called upon by the Myreque, Aileen heads to Morytania.  _Branches of Darkmeyer, Lord of Vampyrium_ continues to the next year.

 

167

4 JANUARY-APRIL: End of  _The Lord of Vampyrium._ Brief stay at Paterdomus and Varrock, followed by  _River of Blood._ In March, the new ruling council takes over Morytania. Aileen recovers from the long-lasting after-effects of wyrd poison for a month.

8 MAY-DECEMBER: Having been invited to Taverley, Aileen finds herself under arrest by the Temple Knights, and forced to work for the Crux Eqal.  _While Guthix Sleeps_ lasts until the end of the year.

 

168

7 JANUARY-JULY: Continues to work on odd jobs for the Temple Knights.  _Wanted!, Slug Menace, Kennith’s Concerns, Quiet Before the Swarm, A Void Dance and The Void Stares Back._

5 AUGUST-DECEMBER:  _Ritual of the Mahjarrat._

 

169

1 JANUARY: Last Temple Knight trial, freedom at last. Leaves for Burthorpe.

2 FEBRUARY-MARCH: Stay is Burthorpe and Taverley.  _Old Death Plateau. Tail of Two Cats in shortened form._ Heads to Rellekka via Keldagrim mine cart.

2 APRIL-MAY: Keldagrim.  _Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf, King of the Dwarves._ Leaves for Rellekka with the situation unresolved.

5 JUNE-OCTOBER: Rellekka. Peaceful living.  _Koschei’s Troubles,_ befriending Kharshai.

2 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Agrees to participate on a dig outside of Ardougne.  _The World Wakes,_ sides with the Guthixians. For the rest of the year, Aileen recovers at Seers’ Village


	5. Aileen's Sixth Age Timeline, Long Version

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events of Sixth Age for Aileen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See 5th Age timeline for notes on canon divergence.

 

* * *

 

            Year 1: At the end year 169 of the Fifth Age, following the death of Guthix and the downfall of his Edicts, Aileen was brought out of the Chambers in a state of shock, and was consequently taken to Seers Village to recover.

            For several weeks, she remains bedridden and largely unresponsive. In the meantime, the world outside falls to chaos. Unseasonal weather reigns all over the world, as snow melts in the north and rains beat the Kharidian Desert. In the seas, sudden storms blow ships off their courses, while unseen powers send their compasses spinning and long-buried gases are released from the ocean floor. Whatever is in the air, affects magic as well: runecrafters report altars behaving strangely, while occult equipment overheats and explodes, and seers suffer seizures and fits. Earthquakes tear open the ground in previously stable places, revealing vortices of swirling light, from which newly released divine energy seeps. Armed conflicts break out at borders. Religious fanaticism is on the rise.

            In Kandarin, Aileen drifts in and out of sleep. She’s not quite herself. When unconscious, she dreams vivid dreams of alien worlds; when awake, she has glimpses of someone else’s memories. They involve clouds below treetops, and fleeing, and the stench of the dead pig-beasts. She kills a god. She grieves. In one dream, she holds in her arms first a little girl (crying, scared; it’s alright, it’s me) and then a woman made of light and crystal (she doesn’t want to leave.)

            Towards the end of Rintra, her illness clears. Thaerisk Cemiphier is by her bed, the way he has been all along. Although she’s conscious and is soon on her feet, some things are not entirely alright. Beside the sheer shock of it all, the feeling of something alien inside her persists. She’s never quite alone. She takes to wandering in the woods outside the village, watching the ever-present butterflies, and on one such a walk it hits her. She sits on a tree stump, and concentrating hard, conjures a butterfly of her own. Iridescent and green, it emerges from her fingers, flies for a few beats, and freezes to fade in a shower of shimmers. But no matter how small, and no matter how short-lived, it is what she needs: a tangible proof of her new powers, a sign that she’s not simply losing her mind.

 

* * *

 

 

_There was a trick to it._

_If she concentrated hard on the part that was not her –the part that had not been there when she agreed to help Orlando Smith with his excavation –she could call it out, and force it to manifest itself. The warmth and tingling in the palm of her hand would become a burn, and from its centre the butterfly would emerge. Ethereal, iridescent, its wings the green of the groves on Zanaris._

_She’d call the thing out, and let it fly around her until it inevitably faded, and she’d feel something return to her. Kami said that the butterfly felt familiar, but could not be talked to. It wasn’t, the girl said, like her and the wisp colonies. It was something she shared origin with, but older, and much more powerful._

_She invokes the butterfly when she’s alone and frightened, and watches the sparkle of its wings in the deep, dark places of the world. When it lands on her palm to dwindle back to where it came from, she knows that it’s time to go on._

* * *

 

 

            Eventually, Aileen, 34, grows strong enough to travel. Before she leaves, however, Thaerisk leaves her a gift: an enchanted ring, through which she can contact her fellow Guardians of Guthix. From now on, if she has anything to report concerning the safety of the planet, she can either use the ring to speak to the others. After long farewells, Thaerisk departs for Taverley and Aileen for Rellekka.

            She makes her way through the woodlands, where the trees themselves grieve for their protector. Once at Rellekka, she goes straight to Kharshai —the only one who can understand, and then announces her news to the town: Guthix is dead, the gods are returning.  As the Fremennik council gathers, she has a short talk with Vídar. She can’t stay. Not now, not ever. The only thing she can  promise is to come and go, as and when she’s needed elsewhere.

            Nevertheless, she lives in Rellekka for a while, discussing the future with the envoys from other tribes. During a talk with Kharshai, he makes a proposition: As she had years ago gathered information for Wahisietel (hearing the name still stings), would she now collect something for him? He hands her a tiny enchanted box, the Engrammeter, used for gathering memories. If she happens across a place where she thinks a Mahjarrat has spent time, she should try and collect any memories left behind. From then on, the little artefact always travels with her. _(Mahjarrat memories begins.)_

            One day after the first third of the year has passed, another message arrives: one of her old contact gems, the Myreque one, is glowing. It is Ivan, and he’s urging her to come to Paterdomus as soon as possible, but refuses to cite details. One more time, Aileen packs her backpack and teleports to Varrock. On the way through Silvarea, she comes across a monk, a lone survivor on a scene of carnage. _(Missing, Presumed Death)_ At the Empyrean Citadel, Aileen liaises with the Zarosians (who seem surprisingly unaffected by their brief confrontation in the Chambers), but continues to side with the Guthixians. After the Dragonkin is let loose, she makes a narrow escape with icthlarin and Death.

 

            Having landed in her burnt clothes back at the Silvarea Pass, she heads over to Paterdomus, where a surprised Ivan Strom greets her. No, he never called for her. Everything is well in Morytania.

 

FIC: [WORDS YOU DON’T KNOW](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333382)

           

           Now the time has come to use her Sixth-Age Circuit.  She calls to the other Guardians of Guthix, and having accepted an invitation she feels more than hears, finds herself in the cavern she had visited long ago on a Temple Knight assignment. This is Valluta’s Temple at the edge of the Void, the place where the great turtle guards the Closeness.

            They’re all present —Death, Valluta, Fiara, Juna, as well as certain others: Icthlarin. Chaeldar of the fairies, the Oneiromancer of the Moonclan, Thaerisk Cemiphier of the druids of Taverley. Cres is dead. Hazelmere used to participate in the meetings, but no replacement was ever found for him. It is ages since the dwarves have sent anyone. There is at least one more Guardian, but the others refuse to discuss him.

            Aileen tells the assembled about what transpired at the Citadel: the Stone of Jas, the Dragonkin, Sliske’s game. For now, none of them have a plan, but all promise to keep an eye on their respective fields and report to each other.

            Once the meeting is over, Aileen teleports to Varrock, her old home. Uncertain of what to do, she decides to consult a friend, the seer who calls herself Gypsy Aris. She goes to her tent for a shoulder and some sound advice, but instead finds her ill and confused. After the death of Guthix, she has been increasingly sick, and keeps having flashes of a different Varrock.  Apparently, the magical turbulence following the death of Guthix has weakened the barriers between timelines, and what she’s seeing is another version of her own world. When Aileen and Aris conduct a simple ritual, a portal is torn open, and Aileen is sucked through into the uchronia.

FIC: [IN THE COURT OF THE DARK IMPERATOR](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333724)

            She spends a month stuck in New Varrock. At the end of it, when Zemouregal is dead and Arrav rests in peace, the portal opens again, and she can return to her own timeline, bringing Tiny Zemo with her.

 FIC: [ENDINGS](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6332974/chapters/14510341)

 

* * *

 

 

            _Just as I prepared to step through the portal and back into my own timeline, I felt something tugging at the hem of my robe. Looking down, I saw a tiny figure standing at my feet, its hands balled into fists and its miniature face screwed into a defiant scowl._

_“Take with you?” it asked, and I could have sworn the small voice was shaking._

_I wanted to be sensible. I wanted to say that it was not a good idea, and that as far as I knew only I could travel between the worlds. But somehow I understood that the connection between the realms existed because one way or another the universe, or something powerful in it, had a sense of justice. Maybe it would permit me a final act of mercy._

_Without a word, I bent down to pick up the thing and pressed it to my chest, where it muttered a few token profanities into my robes. But its hands held on tightly and the sting of its tiny claws did not disappear as I walked into the light._

* * *

 

 

            Back in Varrock, everyone is talking about Lumbridge, where the battle between Saradomin and Zamorak has just ended. _(Battle of Lumbridge lasted from April to end of May.)_ Aileen hangs around, watching the developings and keeping a hand on the city’s temperature. Then, one night at the Jolly Boar Inn, a maid from a nearby mansion is brought in, mad with fright. After she manages to utter that there might be an intruder at the house, Aileen decides to investigate. It sounds like a small job.

            At the end, she spends a month at the Gulvas Mansion. First, she solves the mystery of the dead inhabitants. _(Broken Home)_ Afterwards, when the ghost of Ormod Gulvas has been dealt with, the house enters a state of legal non-ownership, and Aileen proceeds to squat there in royal comfort. At some point, she pays a call to the other side of Silvarea, where she meets an old man with a painful secret and has a run-in with a skeletal creature. _(Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Fur ‘n’ Seek)_

            Subsequently, it’s very cosy at the house with no-one but her and Senecianus inhabiting the lofty halls. Maybe they can invite Ivan or the beacon guards for tea?

            After rumours begin to circulate about the deaths of Ingram ad his servants, two of the deceased’s friends — and Aileen’s — ask her to help clear the dead man’s name by editing his diaries for print. Grateful for the distraction and proud to show off her scholarly skill, Aileen sets to work.

 

FIC: [GULVAS MANSION](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11943840/chapters/27001668)

           

           The first half of the year is behind, when one day Aileen comes home to find a stranger waiting for her on the stairs. She has never seen her, or anyone like her: a human-looking woman with glowing eyes and the facial markings of a Mahjarrat. She announces herself as Moia, spymaster to Lord Zamorak, who has an offer to make to Aileen. Zamorakians, it turns out, are very spontaneous people, as she does not give her a chance to either decline or postpone the meeting before teleporting both of them away. _(Dishonour among Thieves)_

            At Daemonheim, the situation looks far from good. She’s in the deepest pit of the fortress, face to face with the chaos god and surrounded by his supporters. Some of them she knows, but not as friends: Zemouregal, Enakhra, Khazard and Hazeel, Lord Daquarius, whom he met during her time with the Temple Knights, another Mahjarrat she has never seen, and a staff-welding mage who won’t reveal his face. _(Nomad’s Requiem has happened, but since all its implications about Nomad’s master were ignored in both DAT and Elegy, it’s fairly irrelevant and was done by someone else. Cyrisus? Zanik? Who knows?)_

            First, Zamorak explains his case: he suggests an alliance against Sliske. The two converse for hours, but Aileen remains unconvinced. When their talk is over, however, her host refuses to let her go. Unable to either teleport or use any of her communication equipment due to the strange powers of the place, she remains an unwilling guest at the base, while Zamorak continues to try to bend her to his will. In the meantime, she discusses the fortress with Bilrach, and finds out a little bit about Moia. Hazeel is surprisingly civil, Zemouregal and Enakhra are not. She wanders through the halls, sleeping in abandoned beds, reading necromantic tomes and the letters of dead mercenaries, many of them her fellow Fremennik.

            After two weeks of this, a visitor arrives at the hideout: the ghostly general Viggora, who has discovered the location of the Stone of Jas. Immediately, Zamorak gathers his forces, and sends them to reclaim the artefact. Aileen goes with them, as no other options are given. Under the Barrows, she refuses to aid either Sliske or her host. Afterwards, with the party back at Daemonheim, she’s finally let go.

            Having updated her fellow Guardians through the Sixth Age Circuit, she boards a Fremennik ship bound for Rellekka. Halfway through the month-long journey along the Wilderness coast, the ship receives a guest, when in the middle of the sea a Lunar witch appears on board to announce the news: hurry home, V is coming back! His approach has been felt by seers and witches alike, and the preparations for his welcome are at full speed.

            Late in the summer, the mercenaries dock at Rellekka, and soon the hero of the Fremennik returns. There is a great feast and much rejoicing all around, but as it soon turns out, everything is not well.  After a while, V announces his plan to visit the trading post, taking Aileen along with him. _(Hero’s welcome)_ When the Dragonkin are gone, Aileen sails back to Rellekka to announce V’s death, and her intention to chase his killer.

            The journey takes her three months. Her first stop is nearby, at the ancient cavern. Next, she makes a detour, following two leads —V’s notes about Dragonkin and an old journal found among his possessions. She sails along the rivers and lakes of Kandarin, to cross between White Wolf Mountain and Trollheim to Burthorpe. (On the other side of the wall, the battle between Armadyl and Bandos Rages. _The Bird and the Beast lasts from September to October.)_ There, after a chat with her old friend Bob, she uncovers Robert the Strong’s library and meets Hannibus. _(One of a Kind, heavily shortened)_

            Having consulted the stone head at Taverley (the removed one), and armed with bane bolts from Robert’s stash, the two sail to Entrana to speak to the Sleeper. From the holy island, they carry on to Asgarnia, where they land at Mudskipper Point. In the depths of the grotworm lair, they defeat the Abomination together. When the other Dragonkin show up, they flee further into the dungeon …right into the Queen Black Dragon! After Hannibus speaks to the Queen in her dreams, they know it is time to go and visit his old friend. (Fortunately, the Shakorex had once given Hannibus a talisman for teleporting to him. I can’t have this thing taking all year, you know.) At the King Black Dragon’s lair, our duo learns about Therragorn’s fate, and is given a black dragon for a (very unruly) steed, who flies them across the Wilderness.

            At the Dragonkin ruins, they finally meet the last of the white dragons, and all fly off together. There is the unpleasantness with Kerapac, who has just learned of Tarshak’s death. Not long afterwards (although too long for Aileen who is just about done with being detained at Daemonheim), Sharrigan and Therragorn show up. At her urging, Hannibus decides to return home. But before he leaves, the four of them make one last trip together, as they fly to Rellekka to announce that V has been avenged.

            As winter arrives, another feast, a symbolic funeral for the dead hero, is held. All Fremennik —Moonclan, islanders, the mountain tribe — gather at Rellekka to mourn, as a massive pyre ship containing the dead god’s weapons is towed out to the sea and set alight. At the longhall, Hannibus is honoured for his part in slaying Tarshak, and between toasts he chats with Kharshai about the Empire. Speeches are made, epics are sung, and much beer is drunk.

            The year draws to a close, and after the Iaians leave for home, Aileen lives quietly for a while, once more with Vídar, and pretends none of it ever happened.

           

           Year 2: You can’t pretend forever. Both V and Bandos are dead. The Dragonkin are on the move, while Sliske remains in hiding. It is time for another meeting of the Guardians, and having said goodbye to her people in Rellekka, she teleports to Valluta’s Domain to deliver the news. By now, she reports to three parties —the Guthixians, the Fremennik and Azzanadra. And since no-one has any suggestions as to a plan of action, she decides to proceed to the third, and teleports to the Senntisten dig site.

            At the excavation, she finds the temple empty. As she has no way of contacting Azzanadra, she decides to bide her time, and returns to squatting at Gulvas Mansion. Having claimed for herself late Ingram’s study, she begins to write a memoir of sorts. She gets drunk on Fourth-Age wine and wanders down to the basement, where she discovers one of Nabor’s memories.

            But once more, her short-lived freedom comes to an end, when one morning the doorbell rings mid-breakfast. On the threshold stands a dig site workman, who delivers a message in robotic monotone: _Azzanadra requests your presence at the end of Arandar Pass. This artefact will get you there. Prepare for combat.”_ The man hands Aileen a small box, and falls on the ground unconscious. When he wakes up, he doesn’t remember anything since the previous night.

            Inside the box, Aileen discovers a teleport tablet marked with an unknown symbol. Once ready, ready, she breaks it. _(Fate of the Gods)_

            She finds herself in the marshlands south of the Grand Tree, where an unusually warm winter is dissolving to puddles and mud. At the foot of the Galarpos Mountains, she discovers a camp of sorts —a tent, strange magical equipment, and an undisguised Azzanadra, who has spent the past months here making preparations. With the Edicts gone, he tells her, it is time to bring his Lord back. Soon, with two Mahjarrat standing by, she walks through the World Gate to the oldest planet in the universe. The journey —which she quite doesn’t realize is taking her up a mountain — lasts several days. She rations her food and water, dodges lava streams and lightning, and sleeps curled up under natural stone bridges. (Once, sitting under one, she conjures up a little green butterfly.) From the corner of her eye, she sometimes spots a glowing light that sometimes follows, and sometimes seems to guide her.

            When the time finally comes, she chooses to aid Zaros, and the two spend a long time talking at the Sanctum. Aileen learns about the Elder Gods, and the proposed fate of her world. After the two return to Gielinor, and Zaros’ faithful have been sent on their ways, she’s left alone in the same marsh she had teleported to a week ago.

            Uncertain what to do, she treks to the Outpost, where Jorral allows her to rest for a while. She goes on an excursion guided by that strange key of his, but the high fever she runs subsequently blurs her memory of the events. _(Meeting History)_ A few days later, as she’s preparing to leave, out of nowhere appear a pair of mourners, who attempt to seize her. But while they’re still tussling, both suddenly freeze and drop with arrows in their backs. It is the Cadarn scouts! One of them recognizes Aileen, and thanks Seren that she’s alive. After a short talk, she agrees to come to Lletya with them.

 

FIC: [ERROR ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6477127)(An alternative timeline where something didn’t go quite right.)

           

            At the elf village, she meets Arianwyn. In West Ardougne, he tells her, things are worse than ever, and increasing amounts of mourners are crossing the mountains. They need to find out what the Prifddinas elves are up to, and for that, he needs Aileen.   _(Mourning’s Ends I)_

            From that point on, it all goes into overdrive. Wearing the gear of one of the slain mourners, she infiltrates the Death Guard headquarters, and during the following month (which eerily recalls her time in Darkmeyer) learns about their nefarious plan.

            When she returns to Lletya to inform Arianwyn of the developments, he sends her out almost immediately again: She must stop the mourners from getting to the Temple of Light. Once the defences at the temple have been restored and the dwarves and the elves have agree on co-operation (these are the same dwarves whose camp Aileen had stayed at a long time ago), it’s time for one more trip to the tunnels, this time with Arianwyn. At the end, having discovered the fate of Prifddinas, the two go home to Lletya. _(Mourning’s Ends II, Within the Light)_

            The first quarter of the year is behind, and soon the dwarves are finished clearing out the way to the Undercity. _(Plague’s End)_  For the next two months, she shuffles between Kandarin and Tirannwn, sabotaging the mourners, and finally leads a people’s uprising in Ardougne. She lets Lathas live, but the revolutionaries bring him with them, marching the dethroned king in chains through West Ardougne. It’s the one time that Aileen does something for show, and the coiled noose feels good hanging off her shoulder. They disappear into the Pass, and Lathas is never seen again.

            The elven clan leaders are brought together, some fetched from Tirannwn, others summoned from faraway places. Together, they fight the Dark Lord —and after it has consumed both Lord Iorwerth and the bound king, they defeat it, and Prifddinas begins to regrow.

            While the city rises out of the ground elves from all over Tirannwn gather to their ancestral home. King Tyras’ men come out of hiding, rounding up the surrendered mourners. In the middle of it all, Aileen, who feels she has done more than her part, sneaks back to Ardougne. On the other side of Arandar, carnival spirit reigns as King Ulthas is hastily crowned, long-separated families are reunited and freed slaves are brought back from the tunnels. As a part of the proceedings, several Death Guard members are put to death in public.

            It’s Midsummer, and for the first time since her arrest in 166, Aileen walks freely in the streets of Ardougne. She meets up with old friends (Elena and her eccentric acquaintances, Irwin Feaselbaum, her old pals at the Poison Arrow, even mean old Cromperty), and reminisces about the past. One night, tired of the humdrum of the city, she makes the trip to Guthix’s Chambers to pay her respects. As she’s leaving, she runs into a hooded figure in the woods. It is Sliske, of course, who bestows on her the gift of seeing into the Shadow Realm.

            Soon, another meeting of the Guardians of Guthix is called. Aileen talks about the mourners and the Dark Lord at length, but leaves out any mention of Zaros. Another concerns is brought up, though. The “eighth guardian”, whom the others have ostracized as a heretic, is up to something. He’s known to reside in the Feldip Hills, and has been recently connected to a series of kidnappings in Yanille. Could Aileen investigate the matter? Ready to go and done in Ardougne, she leaves Valluta’s Domain and treks to a gnome camp south of Gu’Tanoth.

            After that, it’s a few weeks’ peaceful trundle through the jungle to Oo’glog. (It’s a fascinatingly disgusting place; a collection of rotting shacks by the shore, where the sea wind never manages to clear the stench of sulphur from the pools and mud wasps build their nests on everything, including the ogresses themselves. What’s more, it seems to be in something of a turmoil, as she hears many of the villagers heatedly discuss “leaving or staying.”) After brief negotiations and some minor bribery, Aileen manages to explain her case: she’s looking for a temple or a shrine of sorts, run by what her fellow Guthixians had described as “a many-eyed demon.” The ogres know instantly what she means, and direct her to the Order of Ascension.

            It’s very strange talking to Ocellus, and even stranger finding out what he’s been up to. Aileen explores the caves at length, and let’s just say she doesn’t react well to the sight of the crystal Guthix. At last, she makes her way out and back to Oo’glog, where she reports to the others on the Circuit. (And soaks just a bit in the saltwater pool.) During the same call, she hears news about Prifddinas: the city has been regrown, but has almost instantly become unstable. Her presence might be required.

            As much as Aileen despises teleportation, this time she’s glad to save herself another hike in the bush, and zaps herself straight to the city gates with a crystal seed. Prifddinas has been standing for hardly a month, but already fits of shaking are tearing at its very foundations. So, to the Tower of Voices she goes, where the clan elders have gathered around the shard of Seren. _(The Light Within)_

            She visits the past. She wanders in the dark woods of Tarddiad. She returns to Freneskae, and speaks to Zaros once more. She includes the dark shard, but spares Eluned. At the end of summer, The Lady Seren is back.

            Aileen would love nothing as much as to stay in Tirannwn for a while, but she wouldn’t be the World Guardian if her work was ever done. All too soon, she begins to have strange dreams; dreams of an island-sized boar steered by the pig-like riders who worship it. At the same time, a group of Cadarn scouts return from a trip to Eagles’ Peak, where they had been ambushed by unknown bipedal monsters. The elves had managed to bring down one of the things, and now they lay in front of Arianwyn its severed head: horns, tusks, all as Aileen had dreamed. When the finding is reported to Seren, she recognizes the culprit immediately: Tuska, the world-devourer, is headed to Gielinor. Not long afterwards, Aileen receives another message from Valluta: the Guardians are plotting a way to stop the beast, and the different god factions have temporarily banded together to fight a common enemy, aided by the wizards in Misthalin.

            Aileen returns to Ardougne in order to catch a ship. At the port, she hears more strange news: the ogres are coming up from Gu’Tanoth, and the goblins are leaving Hemenster. Even the jogres of Karamja are busy building canoes and rafts. They’re all headed east, though no-one knows where or why. Usually, wandering Bandosians are trouble, but something is different with these ones: they march in orderly lines, staying away from human inhabitations and keeping their weapons sheathed. One seaman, who had managed to ask a goblin in Taverley what was happening, had only received the answer “We are going home.”

            During the weeks out in the sea, Aileen’s visions —something to do with both her powers and perhaps the ever-lingering effects of wyrd poison — become increasingly intense. She dreams of the worlds the sow has eaten. She dreams of the vermin on its back. She dreams of black holes and swirling vortices of gas, far out in the cold, empty space. She dreams of its hunger.

_(Tuska Comes lasts from September of year 2 to March of year 3.)_

            The ship docks at the Eastern Harbour, a formerly run-down extension of Asgarnia’s Port Sarim. Now the piers are full, while sailors and traders populate the lanes between the stone houses. There is a new Portmaster, she hears, a man who had travelled in the Wushanko Isles, and who had now come to open the harbour for traffic. At the office, Aileen comes face to face with her old friend Harrallak Menarous. The Warriors’ Guild, he tells her, had never felt the same after Ghommal and Sloane died. Thus, when the eastern seas became safe to travel again, he had left the place in Ajjat’s hands to run the port.

            But for now, it’s time to head to the Wizards’ Tower, where preparations for a counter-attack are at full speed. The plan so far is to gather divine energy, and use it to charge the earth-spirit Vorago, who will be launched at Tuska, missile-style. Mages from other factions and countries appear to offer their help: ZMI wizards, including Dagon’hai members. Druids from Taverley, Thaerisk among them. A group of Moonclan witches teleport in, led by Baba Yaga. The gnomes send envoys, as do the aviansies. Soon Zu Zu, who has grown bored with staying at the port and wants to learn about magic in the western lands, shows up. She’s of great help in the defence project, but to her disappointment no-one can think how to get the pig to kill her. For now, as the worshippers of various gods extract energy at different locations and the mages devise ways to best use it, there is little for Aileen to do. Consequently, she stays at the tower, watching the preparations.

            One day as winter approaches, Aileen witnesses a fight break out on the bridge leading to the mainland. Two women scream accusations at each other, until one of them suddenly teleports away in a cloud of nebulous smoke. After hearing the other one’s story, she’s surprised someone else has learned about the Elder Gods, but agrees to help her track down the fugitive. (Sigh, I just can’t avoid the Signaturers entirely, much as I would love to. But if I drop this one, it will eventually come to bite me on the rear end when the storyline progresses in 2034.)

            And so, leaving the Tuska Defence Program in the capable hands of the wizards, she sets out on the road. Since Tuska’s aura, combined with the disturbances caused by Xenia’s actions, have made using the teleportation network unsafe, she’s forced to resort to traditional methods despite the time limit. Her first stop is at Port Sarim, where she catches a boat to Karamja. Trailing Kipple’s signal, she comes to the volcano where she finds FulKra’s chamber, and begins to comprehend the nature of the Elder Gods.

            From Musa Point, the journey continues on another boat to Entrana. What BikKra says about the upcoming revision chills her, but when she tries to ask how much time there is left, the stone head refuses to divulge further details.

            Kipple locates the next signal on White Wolf Mountain, and the two cross over to Taverley on a monk’s sailboat. On a frozen path, where the midwinter winds whip up the crystal snow and avalanches threaten them every second, the golem discovers the chamber of WenKra. Here too, Xenia has stolen some of the mouthpiece’s energy. When they leave, the precipice they land on is already crowded. The entire pass leading to Asgarnia is full of ogres and orks, trudging through the snow in double file. They pay no attention to the human and the little stone creature, but after a few tries, Aileen gets one of them to answer. They’re going to Ice Mountain to join the Chosen Commander. The title awakes Aileen’s interest, and she decides to follow the Bandosians. They pass Taverley and then head north, until reaching a giant assembly at the foot of the mountain.

            Here, buried in dirt, lies the head of the Big High War God, with an open portal glowing beside it.  Next to the portal stands a tiny figure, one which Aileen recognizes at once. It is Zanik, and as she explains, her time to leave has come. She can feel her life’s force leaking out, and has decided to do right in what time she has left. She’s the Chosen Commander of Bandos’ faithful, and she’s going to lead them out to prevent any future conflict with her people. So, over several days, thousands and thousands of Bandosians pass through the portal to Yu’Biusk. The last one to go is Zanik. She looks tired and sick beyond her years, but vows to find an inhabitable place for the people, or else die trying. After farewells, she walks into the light, and the portal closes. Where only a day ago an army strong enough to storm Falador had stood, now remains nothing but trampled mud, over which the wind howls. Eventually, Grubfoot shows up. No, he didn’t leave, he’s a Dorgesh-goblin now. Not everyone went, he explains Aileen, only those who wanted to follow the word of Bandos. _(Mighty Fall replaced with this.)_

            The goblin leaves for home, while Kipple announces it can’t pick up the next signal. That night, Aileen stays at the nearby house of a dwarf, who informs her that the year has changed. Zanik is gone. The Elders are awaking. And up in the winter’s sky, the star that is Tuska has grown huge. She reports the Bandosians’ departure on the Circuit, and falls asleep on Doric’s cot with her boots on.

 

 

            Year 3 starts as Aileen, 36, heads through Falador to Port Sarim. For most of Rintra, storms keep ships from sailing, which gives her a chance to enjoy Harrallak’s hospitality and the company of the port’s many eccentric inhabitants.

            She drinks at Surula’s, while Kipple searches for a signal in vain. She studies maps of Wushanko. She toys with the idea of boarding a ship and disappearing. Then the clouds are gone, and the air is full of butterflies. And when the golem announces it has detected Xenia’s signature thousands of miles to the south-east, she sets sail for Menaphos.

 

* * *

 

_“I’ve taught myself a lot of things over the years, and one of them is to not remember. One of the things I’ve taught myself to not remember is this: That every spring there is a morning when I step outside, and the green butterflies are there to greet me.”_

 

* * *

 

In the desert, she finds the last chamber, where she peruses JasKra’s collection of memories. A disturbing amount of them feature her, for some unfathomable reason. Tearing herself away from the library, she confronts the stone head, who turns out to be considerably more polite than the others. Having had her worst fears confirmed she leaves, but only to find her Sixth Age Circuit burning up. The news are terrible: Something, possibly disturbances in the flow of Anima, has caused Tuska to speed up, and she’s slated to land on Gielinor earlier than expected. As things stand, no-one at the Tower knows whether they will have enough energy to charge Vorago sufficiently. It will be a matter of days, a race against time. There is nothing Aileen can do, and the others urge her to continue with tracking Xenia. If either mission fails, she’s reminded, the world as they know it is done for.

            Aileen camps out in the desert, while Kipple searches for the next signal. The nights are now oddly light, as the greenish star grows larger and larger. In her dreams, she smells the beast’s hot breath.

            In the morning, the golem is not finished. The combination of Xenia’s actions and Tuska’s aura disturb the anima flow too much, and it cannot detect a signal, which means continuing with their task will have to wait until the crash is over.

            Being a World Guardian who can do nothing to protect the world is bad enough, but being stuck in the middle of nowhere alone hardly improves it. And so against her better judgement, Aileen makes the journey to Nardah.

            After the Ritual things have never been the same between her and Wahisietel, but she’s still welcome in the last house at the edge of town. One more time, she sits at the familiar table, and tells him the whole story: Zaros has returned, the Elder Gods are waking up, and while Tuska is about to crash-land in the middle of Asgarnia, a madwoman is trying to drain Gielinor of its magic.

            Wahisietel, on his part, tells her that the Zarosians are not involved in the defence in the face of Tuska, but if their lord is indeed back, he would interfere if he thought the others’ efforts insufficient. As for Xenia, there is nothing to do but to wait.

            That’s what they do. For a few days, it’s almost like the spring of 164 again. Aileen writes her memoir and a fascinated Wahisietel studies the golem. The townsfolk are restless, but Shiratti assures them of Elidinis’ protection. There are no news on the Circuit.

            On the third day, Kipple malfunctions as its sensors overheat.

            On the fourth day, Tuska eclipses the sun, leaving Gielinor in the dark.

            On the sixth day, the spring in Nardah overflows, as water jets from the depths of the earth.

            On the ninth day the message comes, though the Circuit signal is almost too scrambled to understand: Tuska will enter Gielinor’s atmosphere in the next 24 hours. Vorago is charged, though it is impossible to say whether the power is enough to kill the beast. The plan is to launch him at the boar, have him deliver as large a blast of energy as possible, and should he survive, try to direct the corpse into a sea. If the mission fails, of course, the goddess might land alive, or crash in an inhabited area. It’s all up to the Wizards now.

            The darkness gives way to the eerie, greenish glow. The air crackles with magic, and though no rain falls, lightning hits from the gathering clouds. As a howling wind picks up, Wahisietel teleports himself and Aileen to the westernmost peak of the Kharidian Range, where they watch the end of the world together.

            In the dead of the night an orange flame appears over the northern horizon and shoots across the sky, until swallowed by the light of the boar-god. For a few seconds, the planet itself holds its breath.

            There is an explosion.

            There is a howl from the sky, loud enough to drown out the wind.

            And then something the size of an island is hurled from the heavens on fire, and crashes into the Southern Sea.

            In the morning, the sun rises once more to bath Gielinor in its golden light. The human and the Mahjarrat teleport down to the shore to inspect the wreckage. The tsunami brought up by the crash has reshaped the coastline, and damaged many of the settlements. In the waterline they find corpses, human and airut, timber from destroyed ships and boar-faced masks. In the horizon, a new island has appeared, a floating bulk covered in bristles as tall as spruce trees. After several miles of deserted shore, they finally come across someone. She’s clearly a shipwreck survivor, but neither human nor airut, nor of any race either one of them has ever encountered. Nevertheless, the young girl is happy to see them. She was on a boat from Wushanko to the west, she tells them, when the meteorite crashed and the wave overturned the ship. Where was she going? Anywhere, anywhere away from the man who wanted to…wanted to…it’s a long story, and Aileen had damn well known her glowing, green face was familiar.

            Not too long after the wisp colony known as The Memory of Aagi has finished talking, another newcomer appears. It is Kipple, who has used its “return to owner” function to teleport straight to Aileen. The disturbances are all but gone, the golem tells her, and it has picked up a signal in Lumbridge.

            The world might be safe from Tuska, but there is still Xenia left to deal with. There is no time to lose, but out of an old duty, Aileen asks if the girl wants to come along. She does, and with short goodbyes to Wahisietel, the three of them —the World Guardian, the golem, and the wisp child —teleport to Misthalin.

            At the graveyard, Ariane is waiting for them, and together they confront Xenia. At the end, she’s dead, but the damage is already done. When they leave the fifth chamber, with Ariane carrying Kipple’s heart and Aagi in shock, Aileen stumbles through the portal and falls on the ground unconscious, overcome with it all.

            She has a very strange dream.

            After a quarter of a year since leaving, she wakes up at the Wizards’ Tower. The wave from Tuska, she is told, has drowned out parts of the Lumbridge swamp and flooded the crater. The first explorers have already reached the corpse and are reporting marvellous findings. Nothing has been heard from Vorago, but according to seers, its living presence remains at the bottom of the Southern Sea.

            As spring arrives, the allied wizards begin to leave. Zu Zu and Aagi’s Memory have bonded in the meantime, and travel to the Eastern Harbour together. Aileen stays where she is, recovering her strength. After a few days, she has a visitor: an archaeologist from the dig site. She has not seen Azzanadra since Zaros’ return, and now relays to him the whole tale of Seren’s remaking, her trip to the Feldip Hills (he’s rather surprised to hear about Ocellus), tracking Xenia, and the locations of the mouthpiece chambers. Before leaving, Azzanadra gives her two things: first, a contact gem, and second, a tip-off:  He had previously been to the TzHaar City while looking for information about Ful, and had spent some time among the obsidian creatures, who seem to be linked with the god. If Aileen wishes to learn more about the Creators, this might be a good place to start. (He knows more than he lets on, as always.)

            The first quarter of the third year is behind. Azzanadra proceeds to visit the mouthpiece chambers, while Aileen makes her way to the Eastern Harbour, where she learns about the defeat of the attackers at Hyu-Ji. _(The Defiance of Hyu-Ji. With the exception of The Memory, all solo voyages have happened, and I’m only listing the trio voyages here.)_ At the same time, it’s becoming clear that they’ll have to do something about the matter of Quin. Having weighed Azzanadra’s suggestion, she sails for Karamja as Ling, Hubbub and Zu Zu sail out east. _(Quin trio series starts.)_

            In the fiery caves of TzHaar City, Aileen introduces herself as an associate of the JalYt-Mej-Mahjarrat, which earns her some trust with the locals, and she learns about their fertility problem. _(The Elder Kiln)_ Having met the Tok-Haar and reforged the Ga’al (who reminds her of Kipple), she returns to Musa Point to contact Azzanadra. His suspicions, she tells him, were correct. The TzHaar are degenerate TokHaar, who in turn are Elder God creations. Azzanadra teleports to the island, wishing to meet them, and the two head to the volcano. (He had suspected something like this.)

            Back in the caves, she follows Ga’al-Xox to the Elder Kiln, while Azzanadra waits with Tzhaar-Meh-Jeh. _(Brink of Extinction)_ They’re both motivated by curiosity rather than any desire to catch the fugitive —Aileen quietly roots for the little Ga’al, while the Mahjarrat (who holds certain very strong ideas about divine authority and adhering to one’s purpose) supports the TokHaar way over the TzHaar one on principle. After Jeh’s divination spell fades, they continue talking on the contact gem. When she mentions the TokHaar showing up, he teleports in, because dead World Guardians are useless. (Sorry, but this is just not a fight for one human. Mage or no, we’re too damn flammable. Also, Az vs TokHaar-Hok sounds like one hell of a fight and I like the idea way too much.)

            The TokHaar Champion is defeated and the Ga’al finally joins the sacred lava. Aileen leaves, while Azzanadra stays behind to learn more about the TokHaar, who besides having information about Ful are in a sense kindred —distant cousins, if you will. (Furthermore, they like honour, devotion and knowing your place in the order of things as much as he does.)

 

 

_I have left the rest of year 3 deliberately empty, as a spare room to varnish as the fancy takes me. The Quin trio voyages, Kami’s voyages and the Guardians of the World trio voyages will happen. Aileen takes to the sea and travels the World. She might a few adventures out in the uncharted isles._

Around this time, Aileen also begins to drink hard. Living in ports and on ships and being dined at banquets, she slowly slips from a two-beer woman to an “entire bottle of port” woman. It happens almost without noticing.

FIC: [THE WOMAN FROM THE PAINTED LANTERN](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333649) (One night at Surula’s.)

She visits Mos’Le Harmless and explores the Cave Horrors’ cave. She travels to the Void Knights’ Outpost, and studies the strange, half-submerged statues that litter the island’s shores.

Somewhere in there, accepts a diplomatic mission from the Emir of Al-Kharid, and ends up spending several months in Menaphos, where she’s wined and dined, bought and sold, and finally helps dispose of the Pharaoh, only to see another one re-instituted in his place.

While in Sophanem, she delves deep into the catacombs beneath the city. From there she’s whisked to yet another adventure, this one involving her fellow guardians of Guthix, an old enemy, and a god made of the souls of the dead. _(Nomad’s Elegy. She decides to kill the necromancer, more as an act of public sanitation than anything else.)_

 

* * *

 

_”You can’t have someone like that walking around.”_

_Back in Catherby, when I was maybe ten, the Cartwrights’ little girl went missing. The day after they found the remains of her dress in Old Man Barlow’s ash grate, I heard my mother and father talk in the kitchen._

_“You can’t have someone like that walking around.” That’s what my father said, and I saw him and Mr Hickton and two other men leave together that night, and one of them was carrying a coil of rope on his shoulder._

_A week later someone went to the oak tree and put Barlow in the ground._

_“You can’t have someone like that walking around” is what I thought on the bridge above the pit, and that’s about what I said too. The magic in the spear meant it mattered little where I aimed, but I tried to go for the heart. It was over in seconds, and that’s more than most people get._

_I know who took his body, but I don’t think he got put in the ground._

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Year 4 begins, and for its first four months, nothing interesting happens.

            In Bennath, what she has been dreading happens again, as she’s approached by Relomia, Sliske’s oddly affectionate and shadowy errand girl. The invitation leads her to the Barrows, where she loses a piece of her soul to the Mahjarrat.

 

FIC: [I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN HERE](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6985687) (Another alternative timeline piece.)

           

          After barely escaping with the hostages (or rather, after barely being rescued by the hostages, given her state), she recuperates for a while In Burgh de Rott, after which she sails for the Eastern Harbour. Her body is broken, she’s in constant pain, and the four books she recovered in Morytania are burning holes in her mind.

 

* * *

 

_I have never been afraid of the sea._

_I’ve lived by one ocean or another most of my life, and have never felt quite at home inland.         The air doesn’t smell right._

_But when I stood at the head of the pier today leaning on my crutch, squinting through a swollen eyelid and looked out to the horizon, I could not help but think of the ancient journal in my trunk. And though the day was pleasant and the wind gentle, I found myself recalling certain peculiar events and places, none of which I had ever connected to another the monstrous, inexplicable stone heads at the Void Knights’ outpost the nonsensical account the old man at Silvarea had given me concerning the origins of the skeletal abomination the ruined cave complex where diabolically howling ape-things had chased me through the nightmare darkness and I shivered despite the warmth._

 

* * *

 

 

            Once she’s fit to travel again, she returns to Misthalin and holes up at Gulvas Mansion, living quietly and ignoring all her problems. She writes. She does odd jobs about the place. She avoids people.

 

FIC: [A LETTER TO A FRIEND](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/19730068)

 

            Autumn turns to winter, and in Novtumber something finally happens, when the ruins of Zaros’ Throne Room are discovered at the Senntisten dig site. Her friends from the Archaeological Society invite Aileen over, and allow her to peruse a collection of recovered 2nd Age letters. She considers taking them to their intended recipient two blocks down, but decides against it.

 

            Life goes on, when suddenly one night she hears a voice in her head: it’s Kharshai, who is using Lunar Magic to call her, urging her to come to Rellekka as soon as possible. _Children of Mah ensues._ During the events, Aileen sides with Kharshai at every turn. Though her opinion of Zaros becomes ever worse and her fear of him ever greater, she holds on to their loose alliance.

           

            With Mah dead and the Mahjarrat near-immortal (which alone is worrying), she returns to Gielinor and her old way of living. As the eclipse draws close, she realizes that something is changing in her.

 

FIC: [WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T FORGET](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/20761348)

 

            At the end of Wintumber, the moon hides the sun, and Sliske holds his grand Endgame.

            In the maze under the desert, she’s escorted by her old allies, Icthalrin and Death. After losing the final race to Zamorak — and after witnessing Zaros invoke their pact, only to see the whole plan destroyed by Kerapac.

 

            Together with the Barrows Brothers (Akrisae included), she takes on the generals, and then Sliske himself. High on adrenaline and her strange, exhilarating powers, she doesn’t realize why he simply doesn’t zap the Staff out of her hand…and then it’s too late.

 

            Aileen, Harold and Icthlarin take the souls of Nomad and Gregorovic to the river Noumenon.  She tries to explain something important to Icthlarin, but fails.

 

            Finally, she decides to pay a call to an old friend in Nardah, where she learns an unpleasant truth. She’s not alone. She did not come out of the maze alone. And however she’s to prove to the Elder Gods that life deserves to exist, she won’t be doing it alone, either.

 

FIC: [A MINUTE, PLEASE](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/20444980)

 

FIC: [THE SCENT OF A SHADOW](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/20701288)

           

             Having realised what happened in the maze, Aileen — for once in her lifetime — does not run away from her problems, but does what she ought to, and tells a responsible adult. First Wahisietel, then her fellow Guardians of Guthix, and finally Kharshai. Not Azzanadra or Zaros, though.

 

* * *

 

 

_“You heard us, I know you did. Well, then you know that they all know now. They know you’re there, and they’re keeping an eye on you. That’s what I want you to understand, that I am not alone in this. I don’t stand alone against you, but you stand alone against me.”_

_“And if you ever as much as try, if you ever try anything, they will all know, and you heard the oaths they made. If you take over, they’ll come and get me. They will get me and they will take me to Icthlarin. And he’ll take us both to his sister.”_

 

* * *

 

 

FIC: [THERE’S SOMETHING I WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/20450722)

 

FIC: [AUXILIARY POWER](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/21056132)

           

           Happy New Year, Aileen, you have contracted a dead Mahjarrat.

 

FIC: [NEW YEAR](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6333874/chapters/21104177)

           

 

To be continued.

 

 


	6. Aileen's Sixth Age Timeline, Short Version

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a bare-bones list of the 6th Age quests my World Guardian has done. It details little more than their order, approximated duration and any moral choices and special circumstances. For a more detailed version, with explanations on all the canon divergence (of which there is much more than in the 5th Age) see the long version. 
> 
> The number at the beginning of each paragraph marks the period of months a quest or a sequence of events takes. Since the RuneScape calendar months are of unequal lengths, I used the real-life ones to make counting easier for myself. A sequence starts roughly at the beginning of the initial month and ends roughly at the end of the latter one.
> 
> Towards the end of the third year I have so much spare room I have intentionally left it empty, with only certain mandatory element listed. 
> 
> From then on until Endgame, little of importance beyond canon events happens.

 

* * *

 

 

YEAR 1

2 JANUARY-FEBRUARY: Wakes up at Seer’s Village. Recovers from the shock of receiving her World Guardian powers. Receives from Thaerisk Cemiphier her 6th Age Circuit, which can be used to contact other Guardians of Guthix.

2 MARCH-APRIL: Stays at Rellekka, plans for the future.  _Mahjarrat Memories starts._

_(Battle of Lumbridge lasts from April to end of May.)_

1 MAY: Late in April (or at the start of Raktuber), receives a call from Ivan Strom on her old Myreque contact gem, urging her to return to Morytania. Teleports to Silvarea, where  _Missing Presumed Death_ starts. Sides with the Guthixians. MPD lasts for two days, followed by a meeting of Guardians of Guthix.

Afterwards goes to Varrock and meets Gypsy Aris,  _Dimension of Disaster_ ensues, lasts into the beginning of June.

1 JUNE: Aileen returns to Varrock, brings Tiny Zemo along. Stays in town for a bit. After hearing rumours about Gulvas Mansion, goes to investigate.  _Broken Home._ Afterwards, Aileen squats at the manor for the rest of the month, _Rag and Bone Man_  and _Fur ‘n’ Seek_ happen.

1 JULY: Moia shows up at Gulvas Mansion, invites (kidnaps) Aileen to the Zamorakians’ Daemonheim hideout.  _Dishonour among Thieves_ in a shortened version: all the participants are already present. After Zamorak fails to persuade Aileen to support his cause, she’s nevertheless half-forcibly brought along to the Barrows. Catches and throws back Nomad’s spear, remains neutral in the finale.

After the heist party returns to Daemonheim, Aileen is let go. Boards a Fremennik ship to Rellekka.

1 AUGUST: Near the end of the voyage, a Moonclan witch shows up at the ship and tells them about V’s return.

Mid-month, ship docks at Rellekka, V arrives, much feasting.  _Hero’s Welcome._ Aileen leaves with him for the trading post island, Dragonkin show up, kill V. Among his possessions, Aileen finds the Dragonkin notes and an account of the last Dragon Riders and Robert the Strong.

3 SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER: Returns to Rellekka, swears to avenge V. Travels to waterfall, visits ancient cavern base. Sails to the bay north of Camelot, walks to Burthorpe, where uncovers library of Robert the Strong.  _One of a Kind_ happens in a shortened form, with visits only to Queen and King Black Dragon.

With Hannibus along, consults (removed) stone head at Taverley, sails to Entrana to talk to the sleeper. Sails on to Mudskipper Point, where the two slay Abomination together, consult Queen Black Dragon. Teleports to King Black Dragon, flies on a black dragon to the ruins in north-east Wilderness. Meets Therragorn.

Kerapac episode, Sharrigan shows up. Urges Hannibus to return to Iaia.

_(The Bird and the Beast lasts from September to October.)_

1 DECEMBER: Flies with Therragorn, Hannibus and Sharrigan to Rellekka. Feast in V’s honour. Iaian’s leave for home. Quiet for the rest of the year.

 

YEAR 2

1 JANUARY: Guardians’ meeting at Valluta’s Temple, teleports back to Gulvas Mansion.

After two weeks, receives a note from Azzanadra to come to Kandarin, along with a teleportation tablet to the World Gate.  _Fate of the Gods._ Gives Zaros light simulacrum.

Afterwards, rests at the Outpost.  _Meeting History._

1 FEBRUARY: Back at Jorral’s is ambushed by mourners but saved by Cadarn scouts, who urge Aileen to come to Lletya.  _Mourning’s Ends I_ lasts for the rest of the month.

1 MARCH:  _Mourning’s Ends II, Within the Light._

2 APRIL-MAY:  _Plague’s End._ Spares Lathas, much that it matters. As Prifddinas starts to grow again Aileen returns to Ardougne.

2 JUNE-JULY: Stays at Ardougne for some time. While visiting the Chambers of Guthix, runs to Sliske, who grants her the gift of seeing into the Shadow Realm.

A meeting of Guardians of Guthix. Discusses past events, but doesn’t tell about Zaros’ return. The others bring up the matter of Ocellus and the kidnappings connected to him, urging Aileen to check up on the situation in Feldip Hills. At the end of the meeting, is teleported to the gnome glider stop.

Walks through the jungle, visits Order of Ascension hideout and rests at Oo’glog. While reporting on the Circuit, hears that the freshly-resurrected Prifddinas has grown unstable. Teleports to Tirannwn.

1 AUGUST:  _The Light Within._ Adds the Dark Lord shard, but spares Eluned. Afterwards, stays at Prifddinas.

2 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: As Airut land at Piscatoris, Aileen begins to have visions of Tuska’s arrival.  Sails from Ardougne to Misthalin, where mages from all over Gielinor are gathering to stop the beast.

On the way, stops at the Eastern Harbour (Player-owned Ports), where old friend Harrallak Menarous has become Portmaster.

Stays at the Wizards’ Tower, until one day witnesses a fight between two women on the bridge.  _Heart of Stone begins,_ will last until March in next year. Tuska’s aura, combines with Xenia’s actions, makes teleportation dangerous.

2 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: With Kipple in tow, sails first to Karamja (FulKra) and then to Entrana (BikKra).

From Entrana, sails to Taverley to visit WenKra on White Wolf Mountain. Upon leaving the chamber, finds the passes on the mountain full of ogres and goblins, who are all marching east. Aileen and Kipple tag along, until coming to the site of Bandos’ fall at Ice Mountain. There they encounter Zanik, who has opened a portal to Yu’Biusk, and as Chosen Commander, has decided to lead the Bandosians there. Goodbyes. As Aileen overnights at Doric’s the year turns.  _(Mighty Fall_ is replaced with this.)

 

YEAR 3

1 JANUARY: Treks through Asgarnia to the Eastern Harbour at Port Sarim. Stays there while storms keep ships from sailing. Starts to work on a memoir.

1 FEBRUARY: Kipple detects Xenia’s signature in the Kharidian Desert. The two sail to Menaphos, visit JasKra’s chamber. Upon leaving, receives message on the Circuit: Tuska will land earlier than expected, there is nothing she can do. Due to the disturbances caused by the boar-god’s aura, Kipple can’t catch the next signal.

Dejected, heads to Nardah, where stays at Wahisietel’s house (where she hasn’t been in years.) Tuska eclipses Gielinor’s sun.

1 MARCH: The wizards launch Vorago at Tuska, who crashes into the Southern Sea dead. Aileen and Wahisietel watch the event on the Kharidian Range.

In the morning Wahisietel teleports the two of them to the shore, where they discover the floating carcass island, debris from wrecked ships, and a lone survivor from one of them, Aagi.

With Tuska dead, the disturbances in magic have cleared enough to make using the teleportation network safe, and Kipple is able to pick up Xenia’s signal in Lumbridge. Aileen, the golem and Aagi teleport there, Ariane kills Xenia.

Back at the Wizards’ Tower, receives a visit from Azzanadra, who urges her to visit TzHaar City, as he believes the obsidian creatures are of a divine origin. Aileen treks to the Eastern harbour, where she learns about the saving of Hyu-Ji  _(The Defiance of Hyu-Ji)_ and together she, Harrallak and some of the others begin to plot against Quin.  _(Quin trio voyage series begins.)_

1 APRIL: Sails to Karamja to visit the TzHaar.  _The Elder Kiln_ ensues.

1 MAY: Contacts Azzanadra, telling him that the TzHaar are Elder God creations and may have information about Ful. They end up doing  _Brink of Extinction_ together. Afterwards, Aileen leaves the volcano while Azzanadra stays behind to speak with the TokHaar.

_The rest of year 3 and the beginning of year 4 are deliberately left open._

_The Quin trio voyages, Kami’s voyages and the Guardians of the World trio voyages happen. Aileen takes to the sea and travels the world, and begins to develop a drinking problem. She voyages to the Eastern Lands. She visits Mos’Le Harmless and explores the Cave Horrors’ cave. She squats intermittently at Gulvas Mansion and writes her memoirs._

_The Menaphos quests happen, followed by Nomad's Elegy, after which she opts to kill Nomad._

 

YEAR 4

_The quiet and haze continue for the first four months of year 4._

6 MAY: In Bennath, Aileen is invited to the Barrows by Sliske.  _Kindred Spirits_ happens. Aileen looses a shard of her soul to Sliske. Subsequently —ribs broken, eyes swollen shut, terrified to her core — she recuperates at Burgh de Rott. Having recovered, she sails to the Eastern Harbour for a brief stay, after which she returns to Misthalin.

She lives quietly throughout the summer, holing up at the mansion in Silvarea and doing little besides drinking hard and spelunking in the manor's basement.

1 NOVEMBER: In Novtumber, shortly after Zaros’ Throne Room is unearthed at the dig site, Kharshai calls her via Lunar Magics, urging her to come to Rellekka as quickly as possible.  _Children of Mah_ happens. Aileen sides with Kharshai at every turn, and while her opinion of Zaros becomes even worse, she holds on to their loose alliance.

Much, much later she realizes something strange happened to her body on Freneskae.

1 DECEMBER:  _Sliske’s Endgame._ Looks like she’s stuck with Sliske in her soul.

 

YEAR 5

_It’s all a mystery._


End file.
